Following in his Footsteps
by aspecialkindofhuman
Summary: It's the story of Aidan Albarn and his quest to find a proper miester. Also follows the grown up life of Soul and Maka (SoMa!) and other famous students from the DWMA. It expands on both the completed manga and the finished anime. Enjoy!
1. Aidan and the Meister that Never Was

Hey, everybody! Soooo this is my first fanfiction story. It's based off of Atsushi Ōkubo's characters in his Soul Eater manga and the similar characters in the manga. While I can't say it follows either the manga or the anime to the T, it certainly draws off certain aspects of both of them, and I'll point out the major difference in future chapters.  
This stories events take place several years after the Soul Eater anime ends because (almost) all the characters have children of their own! But the story is centered around Aidan Albarn, the son of Maka and Soul. I hope you like it and feel free to point out corrections that need to be need/stuff like that.  
Enjoy!

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Soul Eater or any of the characters involved in this work. Yes, a few characters come from my own thinking, but all of them trace back to Atsushi Ōkubo's orignial work, and I don't own that.

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Chapter One

**WEAPON**

_Ten. Nine. Eight . . ._

A long handled blade fell from the sky, landing in a blonde's nimble hands. She twisted and turned the smooth grey handle, flipping it back into the air and catching it easily.

_Seven. Six . . ._

At the end of the handle, a curved red and black blade glinted in the high sun. A large eye with a red pupil at its center counted down the seconds through slitted lids.

_Five. Four. Three. Two . . . _

The blonde grinned, clenching her hands around the blades handle.

"I knew it!" she grinned, pumping the blade – a scythe – into the air. She held it up over her head as a small crowd gathered around her cheered loudly. "I knew I was your meister!"

_One. _

The blonde's hands adopted a fine tremor as red scorching burns laced across her palms. She shrieked loudly and dropped the scythe with a teeth-rattling clatter. Falling to her knees, she blew on her burned palms, whimpering pitifully.

"Told you."

The scythe flashed a sky blue and a face peered out from the blade's surface. Ruby eyes partially hidden beneath a mop of spiky white hair narrowed in boredom. The mouth lolled downwards as the blonde sat back on her heels, clutching her burnt palms to her chest.

"I don't know why you even bothered. I don't have a meister," the boy continued.

"You could have at least tried to match your soul's wavelength to mine!" the girl growled between teary whimpers.

A spiky grin split the boy's lips. "Who would want to match soul wavelengths with a desperate social climber like you?"

Tears pooled in the girl's blue eyes. "You're a freak, Aidan!" she spluttered, pushing herself onto her feet and balling her burnt hands into loose fists. "A freak weapon without a meister! You'll never be a Death Scythe like your father!"

She turned and stormed towards the building, wiping tears from her eyes with her burned palms.

Aidan closed his red eyes and shifted back into his human form with a heavy sigh. He sat cross legged on the ground, resting his elbows on his knees. He stared after the girl and his lip curled up in disgust.

"Who says I want to be like my dad?" he muttered, staring at the cobblestone beneath his legs.

"MAKA CHOP!"

Stars danced around Aidan's head and he collapsed, falling to his knees at his mother's feet. Behind her, Soul, Aidan's father, rubbed his jaw to hide a pointy grin.

"Ouch, Mom." Aidan grumbled, sitting up and rubbing his injured head. "What was that for?"

"YOU APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW, YOUNG MAN!" His mother's green eyes burned with fury as she glared at her son.

Aidan turned his back on his mother. "No way. You should see the way she treats Junior. There's no way I'm apologizing to that pathetic excuse of a meister."

A ruby pool of blood formed beneath Aidan's head as his mother cracked him hard of the forehead. He lay twitching on the concrete for several minutes, fitting the pieces of his skull back together.

"APOLOGIZE!" his mother repeated, pointing after the girl with a heavy leather-bound tome.

"Easy, Maka." Soul came up behind her and gently rested his hand on her bulging stomach. "Don't upset the baby."

"The baby's already upset, Soul." Maka refused to look at Aidan, glaring darkly at her husband. "Because her idiot brother is too much like her idiot father."

Aidan sat up slowly, rubbing his aching head with the palm of his hand. "Jeez, mom. I'm going to have a bruise. Totally uncool."

"Yahoo!" A little boy dropped down from the sky, landing heavily on Aidan's back. A crazy grin split his small face in two and he fisted his hands around clumps of Aidan's spiky hair. "That was totally awesome! You showed her! She was like '_Aidan! Be my weapon_!' And you were like '_No way! You're way too uncool for me_!' Ha ha ha ha!"

The book in Maka's hand fell heavily onto White Star's head and he hit the ground hard. The little boy's bright blue hair stained red at the scalp as a tiny fountain of blood spewed above his forehead. Black Star and Tsubaki trailed slowly behind their youngest son, giving Maka and her book a wide berth.

"That's the twelfth meister this month!" Black Star said once he reached the small group. He laid a hand on Aidan's shoulder and grinned widely. "Think you're ever gonna find a partner?"

"Of course he'll find a partner." Maka put away her book – to her son's relief – and brushed a speck of dust off her long black coat. "He just has to keep trying."

"For how long?" Aidan muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

The air grew still around them.

"Excuse me?" Maka narrowed her eyes at her son, searching for her book.

"I'm sixteen, mom!" Aidan grumbled, kicking at the ground beneath his feet. "Most kids my age are already well on their way to becoming a Death Scythe!"

Behind his mother, Aidan watched his father's mouth turn down into a solemn frown. Disappointment dug a line in Soul's brow as he watched his son sink deeper and deeper into his despair.

Aidan turned away, unable to meet his father's gaze. "Junior and Renali collected their sixtieth soul yesterday. And I don't even have a meister yet."

_It doesn't help that I've got such big shoes to fill_, he thought, dropping his head between his shoulder blades.

Wind whistled through the empty courtyard. No one could refute Aidan's statement; both Maka and Soul were well aware of their son's predicament. The entire school knew Aidan didn't have a partner and his life was a living hell because of it. His elevated social status as the son of Death Scythe Soul Eater Evans and Maka Albarn, the greatest weapon-meister duo in the history of the DWMA – second only to Stein and Spirit, perhaps – protected him from ridicule. To an extent. But there were always those willing to risk the wrath of a Death Scythe to throw in a jab at the meisterless weapon.

Even Lord Death knew Aidan didn't have a partner and had okayed a full reconnaissance mission to find a partner with a soul wave length suitable for Aidan.

"Don't give up, Aidan." Soul laid a hand on his son's shoulder. Aidan turned to him and saw his face reflected in the lines of his father's. Same bright red eyes, same sharply pointed teeth, same spiky white hair, and the same deep-seeded determination hidden behind a cool-guy façade. "You'll find a meister."

Aidan felt something akin to anger burning deep within his belly, but his father's eyes held so much confidence that he felt bad for harboring such pessimism in the face of his father's optimism.

"Yeah, okay, dad," he muttered, turning away and kicking at a loose cobblestone.

"Can I go to school with Aidan today?!" White Star tugged at his mother's skirt, blinking up at her with huge, pleading eyes. "PLEASE!"

"Not today, sweetie." Tsubaki gently lifted her spazzy child and cradled him in her slender arms. "You're not old enough."

"But Junior gets to go with Aidan!" White Star pouted, crossing his small arms over his chest. "And I'm a bigger star than he is!"

"Yes, but he's older." Tsubaki smiled at Aidan's parents, heading down the front steps with a whining White Star in her arms. "Take it easy, Maka."

"And what about you, Black Star?" Soul clapped an arm around his friend's shoulders. "Don't you have some martial arts class to teach?"

Black Star grinned. "Gotta run! See ya, Aidan!" Black Star thumped Soul on the back and took off towards the DWMA school building, pumping his arms in wide arcs.

"I better go report to Kid," Soul sighed, watching Black Star's retreating blue head. "And tell him the search continues."

Aidan kicked at the ground again, knocking a pebble against the courtyard wall. "Yeah, whatever. I've got to get to class." He flipped the hood of his dark jacket up over his spiky hair. "I'll be home later."

"Hold on, Aidan." His mother reached forward and caught him by the scruff of his hoodie. She pulled down his hood with a sharp jerk and Aidan cringed, waiting for a Maka Chop to split his skull wide open.

His mom pressed a soft kiss into his forehead and ran a hand over his white hair. "I'm sorry, honey."

"Mom!" Aidan jerked away from her, rubbing his forehead profusely. "That was so not cool!"

Soul kissed his giggling wife on the forehead, then bent and kissed her bulging stomach. "Listen to Tsubaki, Maka. No more Maka Chops for a while, okay?"

"This isn't my first pregnancy, Soul." Maka scoffed, tossing her ashy blonde hair back over her shoulder. "I can handle it."

"No more teaching either." Soul's red eyes were insistent. He splayed his hands protectively across his wife's belly.

Maka scowled at him. "Soul . . ."

"At least, until the baby's out." Soul's white eyebrows disappeared into his hairline in a pleading expression. "Please, Maka."

Maka frowned, but nodded, rubbing her belly. "Alright. See you two at home." She gave her son a lingering glare. "And I expect you to apologize to that girl, Aidan. Properly, please!"

Aidan's shoulders dropped and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. "Mom!"

"Bye, Aidan!" Maka waved, flashing him a stern smile.

Soul rolled his eyes and gave his wife a gentle shove in the direction of home. "Go rest."

They kissed and Aidan turned away from the spectacle, stifling a disgusted gag. "Uncool, dad," he muttered when his father finally caught up to him. "Parents don't kiss in public."

"They do if they love each other," Soul said simply without inflection. "I love your mother, Aidan. Always have. It's as simple as that."

Aidan's lips twisted down. "Gross."

Soul sighed heavily, but let it go. They walked together towards the front doors of the DWMA. On either side of them – in perfect symmetry – were the tall red towers, spiky frowning skulls, and large burning candles that made up the DWMA's imposing structure. As Aidan and his father climbed the final steps towards the skull-shaped doors, Aidan couldn't help recalling the happy memories he had of this place as a kid – the times before he'd discovered the full extent of his scythe form.

The times before he'd realized he was a flawed weapon.

"Do you remember when I brought you here as a kid?" Like usual, Aidan and his father were thinking on the same wavelength. He bared his teeth in a sharp-toothed grin, running a hand through his spiky hair. "You and Junior used to run around this very courtyard, chasing after girls and turning into weapons." He laughed. "Your mother was so happy for you."

"Whatever, dad." His anger was on a low-simmer, but at his father's gentle words it ignited into a slow burn in the center of his chest.

Soul stopped with his hand on the doorknob. "It's not whatever, Aidan."

They stepped into the shadow of the building and Aidan watched his father's face dip into darkness. Ruby eyes gleamed in the shadows and Aidan inched backwards, frightened by the ferocity reflected there. It was one of three times he'd ever seen that look on his father's face and whenever it appeared, the father Aidan knew was replaced by the fierce Death Scythe Aidan always forgot he was.

"Your mother and I believe in you, Aidan. We know you'll find a meister. But I don't want you to give up." He frowned at his son and the vicious look retreated, replaced with a fierce sort of kindness. "Who cares about everybody else? I only care about you." He tapped Aidan in the center of the chest. "Your soul's just being picky, that's all."

The shadows on his father's face retreated as he opened the door and a flood of light spilled over the threshold. "Have faith, son." He clapped Aidan on the shoulder and disappeared into the doorway, letting the skull door swing shut behind him.

Aidan lingered for a minute outside the door, kicking the stones beneath his feet and watching the shadows grow longer in the courtyard's center. He looked down at his hand. Red veins flashed beneath the skin and he watched the muscles along the inside of his wrist tense as he curled his fingers into a fist. A long scythe blade appeared along the curve of his arm, glinting in the semi-darkness beneath the school's structure.

"You are destined for greatness," he said to himself, tracing his finger along the blade. "Just. Like. Your. Father." He punctuated each word by tapping a finger on the zig-zag line of the red and black triangles. He sighed and hung his head, letting his arm slip back into its human form.

"Yeah, right."


	2. School Bells and Bullies

Here's the second chapter! Hope you like it :)

**DISCLAIMER**: As usual, I don't own Soul Eater or any of its characters. The characters I created in this story (Aidan, Junior, Renali, etc.) are based off of the original Soul Eater characters, and like I said, I don't own them.

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Chapter Two

**WEAPON**

"He'll never find a meister."

"What a loser."

"The son of a Death Scythe too."

"He's such a failure."

"He's a flawed weapon."

Aidan stalked through the hallway with his head down, shuffling his feet on the tiled floor. Aidan's spiky white head dropped further and further between his shoulder blades with each step. His hands clenched into tight fists in his pockets. He bared his teeth at a group of girls giggling by the mission board. They scattered, chattering happily and sneaking sidelong looks at his hunched back . Their whispers rang with quiet accusation. Like it was _his_ fault that he couldn't find a meister. It was _his_ fault he'd been born with a flawed soul and it was his fault he would never be as powerful as his parents.

Well, maybe it was.

Flawed weapon.

He popped a pair of skull earbuds into his ears and cranked up the volume, tuning out the world beyond his i-pod. The anger in his chest burned a hole through his heart and expanded outward through his rib-cage. He could feel his determination to find a meister cracking, burning away like the corners of an old photograph tossed carelessly into a fire.

He'd never find a meister. They were right. He could never find a meister compatible with a flawed soul like his.

Not at this school.

Not in this world.

Not in this life.

"Hey, Aidan! Yo! AIDAN!"

Aidan jerked to attention a second too late, smacking face-first into Junior's broad chest.

"What's your deal, man?" he snapped, jerking his earbuds out of his ears. Music screamed between his clenched fingers.

"Sorry, dude. Didn't know how else to catch your attention." Junior flashed his friend a slow grin, not unlike the crazed grin of his younger brother.

Aidan took a deep breath and popped his earbuds into his pockets. "Sorry, man. It's been a rough day."

The grin dropped from Junior's face and he hooked an arm around his friend's shoulder. "I heard," he said. His didn't push the subject and Aidan grinned in relief. "C'mon. Class is about to start. Renali and I saved you a seat."

They walked down the hall together and pushed open the door to the Crescent Moon Classroom. Up the classroom's steep curving stairs, Renali, Junior's moody meister, waved to them, patting two empty seats on either side of her.

The buzzing drone of forty voices quieted to a whisper as Junior and Aidan stepped through the doorway. The only sound in the room was the bass blasting from his earbuds. He regarded the class through narrowed red eyes.

Junior, red-faced and bristling, shuffled Aidan up the stairs quickly, ignoring the looks he received from his classmates. Renali nodded to Aidan as he sat down beside her, scooting over to make room for her weapon on the row of seats. The whispers resumed the minute he sat down and Aidan's teeth ground in the back of his head.

"'Sup, Aidan?" Renali grinned, plucking the earbuds out of Aidan's pocket and popping them in her ears. "Watcha listen' to?"

"I dunno," Aidan shrugged. He pressed a button on his earbuds. Music blared from the tiny speakers and Renali held them to her ears, nodding her head to the beat. "Some song about a moon made of black paper. It's in Japanese, I think."

"Cool beans." Renali handed his earbuds back to him. "Heard you showed fat-face Felicia who's boss today in the courtyard! Did you rough her up a little, Aidan?" She grinned darkly.

Renali's eager grin squeezed a tired chuckle out of him and he rolled up his earbuds, stuffing them deep in his pockets. "Not really."

She frowned. "Well then, what really happened?" Renali recognized none of the polite social conventions her partner did.

Junior leaned his elbows onto the table and laid a hand on his meister's arm. "Maybe now's not the best time to talk about it, Ren."

"Oh, come on!" She blinked at Aidan with wide, expectant eyes. "Felicia's making it sound like you attacked her in a dark alley, or something."

His ruby eyes rolled skyward. "Hardly."

She poked him in the rib-cage. "Well then, what's the real scoop?"

"She wanted to be my meister. I told her no. End of story." Aidan pulled his hood down over his face.

Renali played with one of her lip rings, turning the small bead around and around with her fingers. "Sucks, man."

Aidan barked out a low, cringing laugh. "You have no idea."

He linked his arms behind his head and leaned back in his seat. In front of him, he could see Felicia's slick blonde head. Every so often, she leaned over to whisper something to her friend and they erupted into a fit of mean, spiteful giggles. Soon, the entire row was laughing along with everything she said and a few kids even turned back to toss a few glares in Aidan's direction. He deflected them with a pointy grin and a malignant one-finger salute.

Junior scrubbed a hand through his dark spiky hair and wiped it down over his face. "At this rate, she's going to turn the entire class against you by the end of this year."

Aidan's ruby eyes rolled back into his head. "She's so uncool."

"Hey, Aidan!" Some guy in the front row of the class turned around and tossed him a sneer. "Seems like you've lost another prospective partner."

"Have Lord Death's sniffer dogs found you a meister yet?" His buddy chuckled into his hand.

"Come on, man. Nobody in their right mind would want to partner with a flawed weapon like him." The two chuckle heads erupted into hateful giggles that enveloped the whole classroom in a matter of minutes.

Junior, Renali, and Aidan sat quietly in the back of the room, glaring at anyone that got too close and snarling like wild animals.

As the laughter dwindled and finally ceased, Aidan put his head down and popped his earbuds back in, trying to put a damper on the pot of anger boiling within his soul. Beside him, both Renali and Junior were tense, waiting for the next attack. They talked quietly together, whispering in soft, low voices. Aidan tried his best not to listen – he knew that if he had a meister, he'd want some of their conversations to be entirely private – but he couldn't help but overhear some of their conversation.

"You alright, Junior?"

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not. You're all tense."

"They're all looking at us."

"Of course they are, they're looking at Aidan."

"Yeah, but they're looking at you, too."

"It's 'cause I'm sitting next to the guy."

Junior paused. "You're not a freak, Renali."

". . . Thanks, Junior . . . neither are you." Her breathe exhaled sharply. "Now relax, will you? You're giving me a headache."

"Alright."

Aidan felt bad for Junior. He was such a gentle soul, like his mother, Tsubaki. He had none of the wicked self-confidence his brother and father possessed, although his name –Black Star Junior – begged to differ. But he was extremely close with both his meister and Aidan, and he was loyal to a point, something he _had_ picked up from his father.

Renali was the yang to Junior's yin. She was loud, rough, and boisterous, with pig-headed determination that had a tendency to get her into trouble. She also had a pretty extreme problem with authority, stemming from a deep-seeded notion of respect that had been instilled in her by her ancient grandfather.

On the outside, Junior and Renali were complete opposites: she had bleached blonde hair with colorful dyed streaks and he had a messy array of dark spikes, her eyes were coffee brown and his were light blue, and she had enough jewelry stuck through her skin to set off a metal detector while he wore the same plain t-shirt almost every day of his life.

But watching them fight, Aidan knew that despite their different appearances, the two couldn't be more in-sync. Moody and resilient, Renali gave strength to her shy partner. Junior's wavelength was equally beneficial to Renali, easing her fears and boosting the girl's damaged self-confidence.

Jealousy was an ugly emotion, especially for such a cool guy like himself, but Aidan couldn't help feeling it around the two of them. He was the third wheel in their friendship, a fact made painfully clear each time he failed to find a meister. Aidan wanted the casual interplay that flowed naturally between Junior and Renali, the tender kindness they showed to each other behind closed doors, and the strength that passed between them.

"This blows," he muttered, dropping his face into his hands.

DING, DONG, DONG, DING.

The bell sounded above him, marking the beginning of the class period. As its last loud chime dwindled away a small pink head poked through the open doorway.

"Good morning, class," the teacher said timidly, sliding in front of the students with his hands clasped behind his slender back.

"Good morning, Professor Crona!" the class chorused.

A small smile eased the lines of worry around Crona's mouth and he turned away from the class, picking up a piece of chalk and scribbling across the large chalkboard at the head of the room.

"Okay, class. Everybody here?" He turned around quickly with the white chalk clasped between his slender fingers. "Everybody _is_ here, right? I don't know if I could deal with any missing students."

"Everybody's here, sir." Fat-face Felicia raised her hand primly.

Professor Crona flashed her a small smile. "Thank you, Felicia." The he turned to the class. "Okay everybody. Today we're going to be working on broadening your soul's resonance."

A fountain of black blood erupted from the center of Crona's slender back, morphing into the small shape of his weapon partner, the demon sword Ragnarok. Small white eyes with an X-shaped pupil blinked at the large class as a pair of slim black arms wrapped around the top of Crona's pink head. A large mouth lined with white teeth split into a wicked grin.

"That's boring, Crona. We should teach them something else." Ragnarok moaned, poking the side of Crona's head with his finger.

"It's a technique used to help multiple weapon pairs in battle." The professor continued talking through Ragnarok's outburst, ignoring the little demon sword's prodding.

"Come on, Crona. That's boring!" Ragnarok wailed, slamming his little fists down on Crona's head.

"We're going to start today with just you and your weapon. It'll be easier to deal with you guys in pairs." The professor smiled. "So everybody pair up and get to work!"

"Hey, Crona!" Ragnarok pointed to the back of the class. "That kid doesn't have a partner!"

The whole class turned to face Aidan as he lurched backwards, tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling.

"Oh, right." Crona's face fell. "Aidan you're with me for today."

"HA HA!" Ragnarok's wicked face rose and fell in a mean laugh. "Maka's brat still doesn't have a meister! That gets me every time! "

Aidan's classmates slid each other sidelong looks, laughing behind their hands and shooting him mean glares while Crona and Ragnarok argued at the front of the class. Beside Aidan, Junior and Renali cringed for their friend.

His ruby eyes slipped shut and he linked his arms behind his head. "This day isn't cool at all."

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YAY! CRONA!

Sorry, I love Crona! He's so awesome. I know there's a lot of controversy over Crona's gender, but in the anime he was a guy and I think it's best that way. He seems more like a guy than a girl anyway, to me, at least. Hope you like it, next chapter will have Kid in it! YAY!


	3. Aidan's Identity Crisis

Here's the new chapter. Sorry it's so short and it took a while to get out. I was working on some of the other stuff I'm writing. I'm hoping next chapter we might finally get to meet Aidan's meister, but we'll see how it goes. It's about to get good so stick around! Hope you enjoy!

**DISCLAIMER**: As always I don't own anything.

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Chapter Three

**WEAPON**

_Left, right, left, right._

Aidan swung his scythe arm in a wide circle. The air flashed red and black behind him as he spun on his heel, leaping off the gym floor and landing a few feet away with his blade pressed down into the tile.

_Up, left, down, right._

He jabbed and kicked and slashed at the air, grunting with the force of his exertion. Sweat beaded on his forehead and rolled down his back as he slashed the air open with a solid thrust of his blade.

_Cut, across. Left, right. _

The faces of his enemies – Fat-face Felicia, her crummy boyfriend, his fellow DWMA students – appeared in the air in front of his blade and he severed each one with a primal shout.

_Up. Up. Down. DOWN, DAMMIT!_

His foot slid on the gym floor and he slipped, falling face-first onto the tile. His blade landed beneath him and a shallow cut formed on the right side of his leg, just above the knee. Aidan rolled over with a frustrated cry and his blade arm fell heavily to the floor.

He lay there for a moment, breathing hard, trying to shape his frustration into words.

"What. Am. I?" he panted, holding up his blade arm. The pale light of the empty gym bounced off the blade, scattering in shallow prisms of red and black across the floor. His muscles shivered and the blade dropped to his side, too heavy for him to lift.

"What am I?" he repeated, throwing his human arm over his forehead. "I can't fight on my own."

His human arm clenched into a fist. "I can't do anything on my own."

The veins along his arm stood out next to the muscle as he ground his sharp teeth together. "WHAT AM I?" he shouted.

His scream echoed in the empty air, hanging like a dark cloud over his head.

Salty beads of sweat clung to his skin, drying quickly in the open air. He shivered as the air conditioning clicked on, blasting cold air through the DWMA's gym. His body temperature dropped several degrees, but Aidan continued to lay there, unable – or unwilling – to get up.

"You're Aidan Albarn." A cool voice spoke over his shoulder. "Or Aidan Evans, depending on who you're talking to."

The arm draped across Aidan's forehead shifted, and he blinked one ruby eye at the shadowy form that kneeled above him.

"Lord Death," he said slowly, shifting his arm so it rested over both eyes. "Hiya."

"It's late." Lord Death was wearing the stiff black coat he wore on official business, but the goofy skull mask – a relic from his father's old form – was cupped in the palm of his hand. He gently placed it on the ground and lowered himself to sit beside Aidan on the gym floor. His face was composed and he stared at Aidan through yellow eyes, half-lidded like a cat's. "You shouldn't be here," he said needlessly.

"You going to tell my _mother_?" Aidan tried to keep the sneer out of his voice, but his upper lip curled involuntarily.

Kid waited a moment before responding. "No."

Aidan sighed and his body relaxed a fraction.

"I'm glad you're here, Aidan." Kid waited for the boy's anger to cool before continuing their conversation. "I need to speak with you."

Aidan sat up and his human hand curled into a fist. "Why?"

Kid levelled his lidded yellow eyes at the son of his Death Scythe. "Because I'm worried about you."

Aidan collapsed back onto the floor, staring up at the gym ceiling with vacant red eyes. "I'm fine."

Neither he nor Kid believed that.

"Soul is my friend first." Kid knelt in front of Aidan. "And my Death Scythe second. Which means I'll do whatever it takes to find you a meister."

"Whoopie."

"But I have to ask." Kid stared at the ground for a moment before he spoke again. "Do you even _want_ a meister?"

Aidan's gaze slid slowly across the reaper's face. On the outside, he appeared to be the same age as his mother, perhaps a few years younger, but his eyes held depth way beyond their years. _Must be the reaper effect_, Aidan thought, peering into Kid's heavy-lidded eyes.

In them, he saw his own ragged reflection. His eyes were low and dark, weighted with the shadows of his past and the heavy toll of his emotions. He saw his own brutal honesty reflected in Kid's eyes as well as the dark split in his soul that kept him from matching wavelengths with so many meisters.

"I . . ." he looked away. He reached over and touched his fingers to his blade arm, tapping the shiny surface absently. "I don't know." He shrugged and sat up, cradling the scythe blade in his lap. "Nobody's ever asked me that before."

"When you come from a family like yours," Kid watched Aidan with something like sympathy in his eyes. "It's easy to have your own wishes overlooked."

Aidan looked away and his jaw clenched. "I don't need your _pity_," he spat.

The anger inside him began to boil again, but Kid reached out and placed his hand on Aidan's shoulder, capping the anger to stop it from overflowing.

"You are your father's child." Kid smiled and his expression was the kindest Aidan had ever seen the reaper wear. "He and I both know what it's like to have family's with high expectations."

Aidan blinked in surprise. "My father . . .?"

"He had an older brother, Aidan." The reaper squeezed Aidan's shoulder and let go, shifting into a standing position. "He understands you better than you think."

Aidan sat back on his haunches and watched Lord Death walk out of the room. He bent and picked up his skull mask, but kept it off so Aidan could watch his face as he left. He measured his steps calmly and paused when he reached the gym door, propping it open with his foot.

"Aidan?"

"Yeah?"

Kid's eyes flared with deep sympathy for the broken soul of the young weapon. "You can't let what happened back then affect you now. She would want you to move on, Aidan. You know it as well as I do."

Aidan willed the invigorating power of his anger to come back, but nothing but empty tiredness spread from his soul, weighing down his limbs and transforming his blade arm back into a human one. He didn't say anything, but Kid hadn't expected him to. He slid his hands in his pockets and nodded once, registering the cold absence of emotion flickering in Aidan's ruby eyes.

Lord Death turned his back and rested his hand on the row of light switches. "Oh, and tell your father to meet me in the Death Room early tomorrow morning. I think I might've found a meister suitable for your wavelength."

Aidan felt something akin to shock brewing in the center of his chest, but before he could ask Lord Death why he thought that, he strolled calmly out of the room, flicking the lights off behind him.


	4. Yellow-Eyes

**IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE READ OR YOU WILL BE VERY, VERY CONFUSED**: Two days prior to the events in the previous chapter, Kid visited a small town in Maine called Elk's hollow. There he met Aidan's potential meister, Rheanna Morrison. This chapter is - essentially - written from Aidan's perspective, but I figured you guys were ready to meet Rheanna, so I gave you a little snippet from her point of view. Her point of view is interwoven throughout this chapter so its kind of confusing, but it was cool imagining it and it was even cooler writing it so, I tried. Her part is in italics and Aidan's is the normal font. Okay, think that's it.

Sorry it took so long to get up! It's gets interesting after this (I promise!) so stick around! As always, I hope you like it :)

**DISCLAIMER**: Don't own anything as usual :)

* * *

Chapter 4

**WEAPON**

"Rheanna Morrison."

Her hair was jet black, flowing in long inky waves down the back of her neck. She was wearing a dark grey jacket that slid all the way down her sleeves. It was tucked into a long flowing skirt the color of the rising sun behind her. Her back was to the photographer, but her face was halfway turned to the camera, like she'd been snuck up on and had tried to hide her face. Aidan saw the smooth curve of her pale skin and a single bright blue eye, shining in the camera's flash.

_Red? No, no. It's not red. Her eyes flicked up, over the edge of her canvas. The sun's rays grew as she watched, shining brightly against the blue-grey water. _

Aidan held the girl's tiny picture in front of his face, blinking rapidly.

"She's the daughter of Ben Morrison, some real-estate tycoon in Southern California." Lord Death waved his hand dismissively, pacing back and forth on the raised platform of the Death Room. "But she currently lives with her mother in Maine."

_Orange, maybe? She reached around and pulled a paintbrush out of the bun in her hair, twirling its stained wooden handle around her fingers. She held it so the bristles hovered over the orange paint._

"How'd you find her?" Aidan let his hand drop, releasing the girl's picture.

"I was in the region a few days ago and I sensed her soul's wavelength." Lord Death's shoulders shrugged under his spiky black coat.

_ "Hello?" _

_Rhea turned around and her gaze locked with a bright pair of yellow eyes. They were heavily lidded, but bright with interest as they looked her over from head-to-toe. _

_ Her brush switched directions and she peered out over the water, blinking at the risen sun. Her gaze flipped back to the stranger and she smiled lightly. _

Aidan's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And why do you think she's compatible with me?"

_ "Yellow," she breathed, dipping her brush into the tinted paint. _

Kid and Soul exchanged a lengthy look.

Silence dropped between the three men and Aidan exhaled heavily. He tipped his head back to stare at the childish blue ceiling of the Death Room. "Of course," he sighed, sliding his hands into his pockets.

_She swept the brush across the canvas in a wide arc, grinning as the yellow paint splashed onto her knees. She turned back to the stranger and watched him move closer, leaving wide footprints in the wet sand to mark his path._

_ "Thank you," she told him, splashing more paint on the canvas. _

_ "Can you help me?" he asked, stopping at the waterline. She turned in her rickety stool and yellow paint dripped from her brush into the waves washing beneath her._

_ Her icy eyes narrowed suspiciously. "With what?"_

"She's . . . like . . . you, Aidan," Kid said slowly, clasping his arms behind his back.

"Damaged? Broken? Flawed?" Aidan grunted with a self-decrepitating laugh. "Take your pick," he muttered, hanging his spiky head between his shoulder blades.

Another round of silence fell like a wall between the three of them.

_"I've got a friend who needs your help." The yellow-eyed man blinked calmly. _

_ Rhea's fingers tightened around her paintbrush._

"Yes," Kid said slowly. Aidan's head jerked up, but before he could assault Lord Death with a battery of questions, the reaper continued. "But where your energy is rather destructive . . ." he trailed off and his mouth flattened into a thin line.

"Hers is focused on being creative," Soul finished, flashing Kid a pained look.

Aidan's eyes narrowed.

_"Who do you think I am?" Red paint splashed across her canvas. "A freaking –"_

_ "Not like that!" A ruby blush crept up the man's pale skin and rested in his high cheeks. He inched forward as the tide retreated, then stepped back as it washed back in. He blinked at the water and his face creased painfully. "Is there any chance we could have this conversation on dry ground?" A slight whine crept into his tone._

_ "Afraid of a little water?" She turned back to her painting. More paint splashed across the canvas and silence rested between them._

_ The man sighed and shut his eyes tightly. "My friend is . . . _troubled_," he said after a moment, creaking one eye open to gauge her reaction._

_ Her back stiffened imperceptibly. _

_ "His name is Aidan Evans." The man continued. The waves brushed the tips of his close-toed shoes, but he leaned forward and didn't notice. "He's quite a legend where I come from."_

"How do we know she'll help me?" Aidan searched for another excuse as the wall of silence faded from his ears.

A slight grin curled the corner of Kid's lips up. "She will. Don't worry about it."

_"He's struggling. He's looking for someone to help him. Someone that could match with his troubled wavelength." The man stepped forward into the salty spray until he was standing right in front of her. His gaze flicked to the sleeves tugged down over her wrists. "Someone like you."_

"Maka already booked a flight." Soul slipped his hands into his pockets and stared at his stunned son. "There's no harm in trying, right, Aidan?"

Aidan's lips twisted into an angry snarl. He turned away from his father and Lord Death, crossing his arms over his chest. "This is so uncool," he snarled.

_The paintbrush slipped from her fingers._

"It's okay to be scared, Aidan." Kid stepped up and clasped an arm around the young weapon's shoulder.

"What? I'm not –!"

"Rheanna is different." Kid's squeezed lightly then let go, eyeing Soul meaningfully behind Aidan's rigid back. "This will work."

"I doubt that," Aidan scoffed, but his shoulders were trembling lightly.

_It splashed into the ocean and drew away from the pair standing on the shore until it was nothing but a blip on the slowly warming horizon._

"Liz and Patty will go with you as my representatives." Kid nodded, turning to the mirror and pressing a few buttons he'd programmed into the shiny surface. "And they'll be there in case anything happens."

_"I don't know about this." She hugged her arms around herself, clasping her elbows with bloodless fingers._

_ Kid gently laid his hand on Rhea's shivering shoulder. "It'll be alright. I promise."_

_ She blinked up at him and a little girl peered out from within her frosty blue eyes. She blinked again and the girl was gone, hidden by a thick teenage bravado._

_ "Okay," she nodded, trying on a thin smile._

"Fine," Aidan sighed with a breath like a growl

_"I'll do it."_

"I'll do it."

Somewhere in Death City, a cold chuckle was muffled behind a thick pair of hands.

"That's it, girls." He breathed in a rough voice to the swords hanging at his sides. "It's time."


	5. Long-Distance Call

I debated putting this chapter up because - in my opinion - its a very raw chapter. I put a lot of emotions into this chapter, and I hope you guys feel this chapter like I did when I wrote it. I don't know the next time I'll update, but hopefully it'll be soon because a lot of people, to my surprise, seem to like this. Thanks for all the support, guys! It makes me feel good to know that people actually like the stuff I'm writing. :) As always, hope you like it!

**DISCLAIMER**: You know the drill. Do. Not. Own.

* * *

Chapter Five

**WEAPON**

The phone rang three times before she picked up.

"Hello?" Her voice crackled through the static.

"Is this Rheanna Morrison?"

Static flooded the line, sucking up the silence before her answer. "Is this Aidan Evans?"

"Yes."

"Then, yes." Aidan grinned over the line. The silence between them was awkward and sweet. "I'm Rheanna," she said after a moment.

Aidan's hand curled around the payphone's sticky receiver. An involuntary grin curled his lips up. "Hi."

"Hi," she replied.

Silence mixed with static drifted across the line between them.

"So, um." Aidan searched for words, clearing his throat roughly. "I'm going to be late."

Something crackled on Rheanna's end of the line. "Oh?" she said after a moment.

"Yeah, sorry."

Silence dropped between them and Aidan contemplated hanging up.

"Who are _you_?" she asked finally. The static was completely gone and the force of her word smacked Aidan in the face.

His head dropped against the cool metal encasing the pay phone's booth. "I'm Aidan," he avoided the question.

"No, seriously." Something cracked loudly on her end and he cringed as the sound blasted into his ear.

"Rheanna – can I call you Rhea?"

"No."

Aidan sighed and rubbed a hand through his spiky white hair. He locked eyes with his father outside the phone booth. "Look, Rhea –"

"Three days ago a yellow-eyed demon asked for my help with a guy named Aidan Evans. And now you're Aidan Evans and you're saying –"

"_Yellow-eyed demon_?" Aidan breathed in a laugh. "Do you mean _Lord Death_?"

She sighed heavily. Aidan listened to the quiet sound intently. "Aidan." Her voice dropped away.

"Rhea." Aidan mocked her with a pointy grin.

"Don't call me that."

"Why not?"

"'Cause I don't know you."

"You know my name."

"Yeah, but who are you? Where do you come from? Who are your parents? Where do you live? What do you like? Who do you like? What kind of car do you drive? What –" There was a sharp click and the muffled sound of heavy breathing.

Aidan held the phone away from his ear and stared at it for a moment before slowly placing it back over his ear. "Hello?" he called into the phone's speaker. "Rheanna?"

Slowly, _slowly_, she picked up the phone and placed it over her ear. "Who are you, Aidan Evans?"

"I'm a . . ." his gaze drifted back to his father. He was shaking his head solemnly. He knew what Aidan had been about to say, he _knew_ the words he'd been so close to blurting; the truth that this poor girl so desperately wanted to hear. "Scorpio."

He heard the soft snick as her mouth snapped shut. "I'm going to hang up."

"Wait!" he called and she sighed softly.

"What?"

"Our flight's been cancelled." He finally began to explain himself. "Apparently there's a hurricane in your area."

"You're a genius."

He grinned. "Are you usually this sarcastic?" Something rattled behind him and he turned, watching his father tap lightly on the booth of the pay phone. "Yeah?"

"You gonna talk all night?" Soul eyed his son warily.

He shook his head. "Give me a second."

"Who was that?" Rheanna asked as Aidan waved his father away.

"My dad." Aidan scowled at his father's retreating form. The lanky middle-aged man collapsed onto a stiff airport chair, sipping crappy coffee from a stiff plastic cup.

"Do you have a mom?" Rheanna's voice was curious.

"Yes."

"What's her name?"

"Maka Albarn."

"That's a cool name."

Aidan snorted. "You think Maka's a cool name? My dad's real name is Soul Eater Evans."

"Whoa."

"Yeah, I know."

"Where do you go to school?"

"The DWMA." He heard a question forming in his pause. "Don't ask," he said quickly.

She sighed and switched directions. "Do you have any friends?"

"Two."

"Two?"

"Two," he grumbled. His hand tightened around the phone.

"That's more than I have," she said quietly. She didn't give him time to ask. "What are their names?"

"Junior and Renali."

"Junior what?"

"Black Star Junior."

"I want to meet them." Her questioning was just to the left of polite curiosity, but Aidan, surprisingly, didn't mind.

He kicked his feet up – as much as possible anyway – in the cramped airport phone booth and linked his free arm behind his head. "If you help me," – _if you're actually my meister_ – "you will. Is it my turn to ask the questions yet?"

"What do you want to know about me?" Her voice dropped into a dull, flat tone.

Aidan frowned. "You alright?"

"I'm fine." Her voice fell even lower.

"Okay, then." Aidan rubbed his jaw with his free hand. "Ummm . . . well . . ."

"You haven't given much thought to this, have you?" She relaxed.

Aidan noticed, but let it drop. "Up until a few days ago I wasn't sure I wanted a . . ." his voice clenched up around the forbidden word and he cleared his throat roughly. "Wanted someone to help me."

"Why not?"

Aidan shrugged. "It's not really my style."

"Think getting _special help_ is for crazy people." Her tone stiffened.

"No." Aidan shook his head. "I just . . . I wasn't sure it was my decision, you know? It was more like it was someone else's and I was just going along with it."

She was quiet for a moment. "What made you change your mind?"

He laughed quietly. "I haven't yet."

"You're waiting to see what I'm like, right?"

"I'm waiting to meet you, yes." _But I think you'll be able to help me, Rheanna_. He left those words unspoken.

Silence hung between them for so long that Aidan was beginning to think she'd hung up. Then she drew a quiet breathe and he listened closely. "I hope you're not disappointed," she said quietly.

_I don't think I will be._

"I'll call again."

"You do that."

"I'll be there in a few days."

"Okay, Aidan."

"Bye, Rheanna."

"Bye, Aidan."

Neither one of them was willing to hang up the phone.

"I want to meet you," he said quietly and clicked the phone into the receiver before she could respond. He panted heavily, clutching the phone booth's metal walls for support.

"Aidan?" his father was behind him with another steaming cup of coffee. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he breathed, grasping the front of his shirt and jerking it away from his skin. "Is it hot in here or is it just me?"

A plane ride, two buses, and a water ferry away from him, Rheanna Morrison sat in her dusty little studio, gripping the front of her sweatshirt. She pulled it away from her skin with a moan, hanging her head. Inside the house, her mother was calling for her, but Rhea did not hear her. Her ears were full of Aidan's words and her heart was heavy because of it.

Under the long sleeves of her sweatshirt, Rhea's wrists began to ache.

* * *

Sorry for the teaser haha he'll meet her eventually, don't worry :)


	6. I Will Be Better Than You

New chap! Yay. Hope you like it. And I PINKY PROMISE next chapter we will meet Rheanna. FOR REAL. Really. I promise. I'm such a tease :)

* * *

Chapter Six

**WEAPON**

The airport runway was slick with black rain. Trees bent to kiss the ground and the sky flashed with powerful streaks of lightening.

"It'll be easier to tell her in person." Soul clasped an arm around his son's shoulder.

Aidan shook him off. "Yeah, right. She's going to think I'm crazy either way."

"You'll have to force her to believe." Soul tapped Aidan's left arm and Aidan curled his hand into a fist. "She'll accept it. She'll have to."

"It all sounds so wrong." Aidan sunk onto a stiff airport chair and buried his face in his hands.

Soul blinked in surprise and gingerly slid into the chair next to him. "What does?"

"Meeting her. Whisking her away to some school she's never heard of so she can swing a scythe she's never met and fight humans she's never fought before." Aidan's voice was muffled through his hands.

Soul rested his hand on his son's shoulder. "It'll be alright." Aidan didn't shake his father off and Soul's heart expanded painfully. "I mean it, Aidan. This girl . . . you haven't even met her yet, but," – he looked toward the row of phone booths in the airport lobby – "I think she's already doing you some good."

"How is that possible?" Aidan whispered with a pained groan. "We don't even know if she's my meister yet!"

"What do you think?" Soul's hand squeezed his son's shoulder softly. "You've talked to her three times now. Do you think she's your meister?"

Aidan shook. He raised his head and watched the trees tremble in the storm outside. "Yes." He looked back down at his hands. He traced a blue vein along the inside of his left wrist. "No. UGH! I don't know."

Soul leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. "Yes, you do."

Aidan turned his head to blink one eye at his father. "You and mom became partners over a song, right?"

Soul stiffened for half a second, then nodded. "Yes."

"But you were trying to scare her away, right? To show her the madness in your piano?" Aidan was searching for something to grasp onto.

Soul shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "Yes and no." He sighed and leaned forward so his elbows were resting on his knees. "I don't think I consciously knew what I was doing. I was trying to show Maka who I really was and I just assumed that she'd run away." He laughed and ran a hand along his white stubbly jaw. "You wouldn't believe how surprised I was when she didn't."

"But I'm not trying to scare Rhea away." Aidan curled his hands in frustration. "This isn't like me at all."

"You've recognized the need in yourself." Soul's voice was soft and Aidan had to lean in to hear him over the raucous of the airport lobby. "And the need in her." He leaned back and linked his arms behind his head. "I assume there is a need in her, or else Kid never would have found her."

Aidan's gaze found the row of metal phone booths. "Yeah." His mind drifted back to their last conversation. "She needs me."

"_Are you alright?" Aidan's hand clenched around the phone's plastic casing. "You sound kind of tense."_

"_I'm fine." Her voice was pained and something inside Aidan snapped._

"_You can talk to me, you know," he found himself saying. "I'm here for you."_

_She laughed softly. "Technically you're not."_

_His face darkened. "What do you mean?" _

"_You're half a country away, Aidan."_

_Aidan rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. "Physically, no, I'm not there with you. But I'm _here_. You can talk to me." _

_There was a pause, accompanied by the slight sound of her ragged breathing. "You are, aren't you?" There was a slow sort of realization in her tone._

_Aidan blinked. "Of course I am, you're my –" His voice cut off sharply and his hand fisted around the phone. "Friend."_

"_Am I?" Her laugh dropped into the short, caustic tone she used when discussing herself. "We barely know each other, Aidan. We've shared three phone calls and I still don't know anything about you."_

"_You know what I'm like," He said slowly._

"_Do I?"_

_His teeth ground together. She was catching on. "I'm not lying to you."_

"_But you are hiding something." _

_She knew. His heart stopped. She knew, she knew, she knew. Who was he kidding, she'd always known. She was smarter than he'd ever given her credit for. _

"_Yes."_

"_Well." Her voice was slow to breach the gap between them. "I guess that's okay."_

_Aidan's eyes widened. The phone slipped in his fingers. "Wha–"_

"_Because I'm hiding stuff from you too."_

_The phone died in his hand._

"Looks like this storm's almost over." Liz walked up to them and sat down beside Soul. "No more spending our nights at this ratty airport."

"We could have gotten a hotel room," Soul muttered, but Liz shrugged with a grin.

"Nah. It's more fun to live through it and complain afterwards."

Patty strolled up, juggling a thick cardboard container of coffee. She held it out to the small group and everyone grabbed a cup. Aidan left his on the armchair and sat up, looking out over the rain-darkened runway.

"I can't do it."

The tired group blinked at him with wide eyes. "WHAT?"

"I can't." His head shook fiercely. "She'll hate me. I can't take her away from her home."

"We've already come this far!" Liz groaned, waving her hand towards the flight board. "We're half a country away from both Death City and this little girl. We might as well go check her out!"

"Yeah, Aidan." Patty grinned. "It'll be fine. You'll see."

"No, it won't!" He slammed his fists down on the airport armchair. His coffee teetered then fell, spilling the black liquid on the floor beneath his feet. A few people sitting nearby tossed alarmed looks in his direction, burying their faces in their books and their i-Pads.

Soul looked into his son's eyes. What he saw there curled his lips up in a proud smile. He hid it quickly behind a sip of his coffee.

Burning like red fire in his eyes, was the force of Aidan's determination. It was something he'd never felt before, something he'd pushed away whenever it'd come close to consuming him. This was his mother's determination. Everyone told him that. He wanted no part of his mother to reside with him. He wanted no part of his father either, but it was already too late for that. Anyway, it didn't matter anymore.

Because he had found his meister.

He would protect his meister. He had to. He would not let her suffer the same pain he'd felt after being dragged unwillingly into this world of meisters and weapons. He would not let the cruel harpies stalking the halls of the DWMA turn her into prey for their gossip. He would not let her become like Angelica. He wouldn't. He couldn't.

He.

Would.

Protect.

Her.

Soul leaned forward and spoke directly into his son's ear. "To protect her, you must keep her with you."

Aidan deflated all at once and collapsed against the airport chair. He looked to his father, trying desperately to master his rapid breathing.

Soul nodded once and stood, placing his coffee on the armchair of Aidan's seat. "I'll go get some napkins," he said, strolling off in the direction of the airport bathrooms.

Patty and Liz got up to help him, smiling behind their hands at Aidan. "He's changed," they whispered. "Look at him. He's changed!"

Aidan watched them go with wary eyes. His hands shook in his lap and he reached out and clenched them around his father's cup of coffee. Unconsciously, he raised the steaming cup to his lips and took a sip.

_I'm like my father._ He thought, sipping the caffeinated beverage. _But I will not be _like_ my father. _

I will be better.

For her.


	7. When Fantasy Becomes Reality

Sorry for the long wait! It took me almost three tries to get this chapter right. I just really wasn't happy with the way I originally had it going, so I scraped it and started again. I've already got the next couple chapters written so I'll try to update as soon as I can. Let me know what you think! Hope you like it :)  
Oh and PS, this chapter is kind of an info dump about Jane/Rhea from Jane's perspective and I'm sorry for that, but there's a lot of stuff you need to know and we're not going to be seeing much of Jane after this chapter so yeah. Sorry about the cliffhanger :)

* * *

Chapter 7

**MEISTER**

The sun was a bloody disc in the sky when her mother's car pulled into the driveway. Rhea froze with a bowl of pancake batter caught between her hands. The oven was on, the kitchen lights were lit, and down the hall, the doorknob rattled. The bowl slipped from her hands. Rhea tried to run, but she'd barely made three steps when her mother was upon her.

"RHEANNA MORRISON!" Her voice was an inhuman screech that popped Rhea's eardrums and sent shivers down her spine. Her mother grabbed her arm and shook her roughly until Rhea was no longer sure her legs would support her. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

Rheanna backed away from her mother and the back of her knees hit a chair. She sat heavily and her mother bent over her, red-faced and screaming. Spittle flew from her large mouth and landed on Rhea's pale cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Jane." Rhea sat on her hands. "I couldn't help it."

A vein throbbed at Jane Morrison's temple. "_Couldn't help it_!" she screeched. "YOU GOT INTO A FIGHT!"

"She was _asking_ for it, Jane!" Rhea's pulse was all over the place, wild with fury.

Her mother's quick temper faded as Rhea's reached its crescendo and the two switched places in the dance that had become the daily routine of their lives.

"It's your fault, anyway!" Rhea's shoulders shook with the force of her anger. "You're the one who made me go to that stupid school! Everyone there is spoiled rotten and they all hate me 'cause I'm not some rich brat like they are."

Jane closed her eyes.

"Sarah's the worst!" There was ice in Rhea's blue eyes. "She thinks I'm the freaking Antichrist, or something! I hate her! I wish she'd just die!"

Jane rocked back on her heels and closed her eyes. "What did she do?" she asked wearily.

"Ugh, I don't even know." Rhea stood up roughly from the chair, and bent down to grab the bowl of pancake batter. She whisked it around with a spoon until the batter was a gelatinous mix. "She called me a freak."

Jane collapsed into the seat her daughter recently vacated and dropped her head into her hands. Anger exhausted, Jane Morrison cycled through seven types of disappointment before finally letting the weariness she'd been holding back since the divorce settle into all the nooks and crannies of her soul.

"That's not an excuse to start a fight, Rheanna." Jane turned to watch her daughter pour batter onto a griddle on the stove.

"She turned the entire grade against me." Rheanna poured too much batter onto one side and it sizzled into the flames, turning them blue with heat. "No, the whole school!"

"You've always been a lone wolf, Rheanna." Jane rubbed her temples. Anger was building again, but she pushed it down with a heavy hand. "What really happened?"

She turned her eyes towards her daughter. Her composure was cracking. The ice in her eyes was splitting. Jane sighed and leaned back in the chair. Her daughter was breaking. It was almost over.

Rhea slammed the bowl down onto the counter. Batter splashed up the sides of the bowl and dropped onto the counter in thick, white drops.

"She told me Aidan wasn't real, alright." Rhea tilted her head back to the stare at the light fixtures dangling from the ceiling. "She told me he was just some fake boyfriend I'd made up to look cool. Not that I ever said he was my boyfriend." Her hands fisted around the bowl of batter "And then she told me that even if he was real, he'd never want to date a freak like me, so I punched her."

Jane dropped the side of her head into her palm and rested her elbow on the table. She watched her daughter make pancakes with a sideways view of the world, trying to read the tension in her daughter's shoulders and the angry lines around her mouth.

Jane Morrison was a harsh-looking woman of 35 with a face aged well beyond its years. Gray hairs had taken up residence along the crown of her forehead and down the back of her neck. Lines had begun to form along her mouth and near the corners of her wide blue eyes. Her mouth was large and sagged open a lot of the times, firming up only with great effort. A smile hadn't graced Jane's lips in several years – the old-young woman wasn't even sure she remembered how to smile.

Parenting a child through the rough years of college and grad school hadn't been easy for Jane – it had sucked away at the youthful vitality all young women possess. The struggle to raise Rheanna had torn away at the fibers of her soul until there was nothing left but the old, hardened shell she was now.

Her life had been one big parade of sadness; one hit right after the other. An abusive father, a child at 19, an unhappy marriage, two more needy children, and a divorce that had rocked her world. She'd managed to find some kind of happiness after the divorce when she'd moved to Maine with her daughter and started her own business, but it seemed Jane was not destined for happiness.

Jane's eyes shifted to the pile of paper sitting on the counter by the phone. They were out of Rhea's line of sight, and; therefore, out of her mind. But Jane knew what those letters said, she'd read them word for word. She practically had them memorized.

A few weeks ago, the doctors had found some cells in her lungs that wanted to be liver cells. There was nothing wrong with them – they were simply doing their job. Except, they couldn't. Because they were in her lungs.

She didn't want another liver in her lungs, but it seemed there was no stopping the cancerous cells. Jane also didn't want to be the one to tell her daughter, but she would rather have Rheanna find out beforehand, rather than at Jane's grave.

_But how could she tell her?_

Rheanna popped two pancakes out of the griddle and spooned some syrup onto the fluffy hotcakes. Judging by the pile beside the stove, Rheanna had been making pancakes since she'd gotten home – sometime close to noon.

Her daughter was wearing the large, bulky sweatshirt she always did, no matter the temperature. Jane knew why. Everyone knew why – her arms were hidden beneath the sweatshirt sleeves. And Rhea was happy. Beneath it, a long purple skirt swished about her ankles as she moved. Jane smiled as she watched the skirt tickle the bare skin of the girl's feet.

That was the kind of thing she used to wear all the time. Long dresses, bright clothing – they were from a happier time. Right after the divorce. Right when they'd moved to Maine. When Grandma Rose was still alive. When Rheanna still had hope that she'd find her niche in life. When it had seemed like the world was working in their favor, instead of turned against them with glaring hateful eyes.

_I can't tell her. _

Rhea's depression was not something Jane understood. Rheanna's moods and airs were so different from her own that she could barely hold a five minute conversation with the girl. And yet. Rheanna was still her daughter. If not for the caner . . . If not for the secret burning a hole in Jane's heart, she would have tried harder to deal with her daughter's condition.

But as it stood, Jane was too afraid to do anything. She lived in constant fear of making it worse. She tried to be gentle with her daughter's fragile nerves, but gentle was not a setting that had been hardwired into Jane's brain. All her actions were rough and brash; harsh movements that she regretted long after the moment had passed.

_But I've got to._

Jane watched Rheanna spoon more batter onto the griddle. It sizzled and burned and her mouth began to water, but her stomach roiled at the thought of eating anything. Chemotherapy began in a few hours. She didn't want anything in her stomach – or on her conscious – when she went into radiation.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, standing up from her chair. "I've got to go."

Rheanna turned to her mother with the batter spoon in hand. "You just got here." A landmine of emotion hid beneath her words.

Jane, very carefully, tried to step over it. "There's paperwork I have to fill out at St. Mary's, to finalize your expulsion and so on." St. Mary's, the only private school on the island, worked a little differently in the way they handled disciplinary measures. "I've also got to start looking for another school. You might end up having to go off the island."

"Oh." Rheanna's shoulders dropped and she turned back to the hot griddle. "Okay."

The landmine exploded.

"Look, Rheanna. There's some . . . things I have to tell you." Jane pushed the words out of her mouth so she wouldn't have enough time to take them back.

"Is it about Aidan?" Rheanna's shoulders were stiff under her sweatshirt. "Because he's real. I promise. I've talked to him, like, four times now."

Jane's eyebrows lowered in confusion. "No, no, it's not about your friend." _Though I will have to address that eventually. _"There's some things I need to share."

Rheanna rested her hand on the burner and turned the knob until the gas flickered off and the flames died beneath the griddle. "What's up, Jane?"

The line between parent and acquaintance – not friend, no they weren't close enough for that level of intimacy – blurred as Jane sat down and gestured for Rheanna to have a seat beside her. Rheanna went, plucking one of the freshly baked pancakes off the griddle and munching on the end. She juggled it between her fingers as she sat down, and blew on the hotcake to cool the steam rising from its browned surface.

"I, um, paid a visit to, uh, Dr. Martin the other day." Jane began, playing with her fingers. They were short and stubby, ugly compared to her daughter's slim, painter's fingers.

Rhea nodded. "Your chest has been bothering you." She tore off a piece of pancake with her teeth.

"Right." Jane sighed and let her hands drop. "Well, Rheanna, here's the thing . . ."

A curtain of silence dropped between the two women as Jane struggled with the lump of emotion in her chest. Never one for teary confessions, Jane turned away, but her daughter would have been blind not to see the tears leaking down her mother's cheeks.

"Jane?" Rhea swallowed a mouthful of pancake and blinked warily at her mother. "Are you alright."

She cleared her throat and tried again. "I –"

"Hello?" a deep voice called down the hallway leading to the kitchen. "Umm, I tried ringing the doorbell, but nobody heard. And the door was open so I . . ."

A white-haired figure came to stand in the doorway, blinking at the pair sitting at the table with wide red eyes.

"Whoa," the boy breathed, slipping his hands into his pockets. His eyes lingered on Rheanna and a pointy grin curled his lips up. "You're even prettier in person."

Jane's eyes froze wide open with shock. The boy's gaze slid to her and he blinked. "Uh, hey, lady!" he waved his hand in front of her face. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

Rheanna stood up on shaky legs. She neared the white-haired stranger with terrible caution, curling the reminder of her hotcake into a cylinder. She aimed it out in front of her like a weapon.

"Who are you?" she asked sharply. Her blue eyes were icy with fear. "Get out of my house!"

"Whoa, easy, Rhea!" The white-haired boy held up his hands and edged half a step back. "You gonna hit me with that," – he looked closely at the pastry in her hand – "Hold on, is that a _pancake_?"

"Wait a second." Sharp tingles burst through Rhea's fingers and she let the hand holding the pancake drop to her side. She tilted her head to the side, blinking at the white-haired boy. "That voice."

His lips tipped up again. "Sound familiar?"

She aimed her pancake at the boy's chest. "Say something," she commanded, blinking wildly.

"You really don't know me?" He grinned. "And here I thought we had something."

The familiar cadences of his voice washed over her and the pancake dropped from her nerveless fingers. Her mouth fell open. "_Aidan?_" she breathed.

His lips curled up even higher, revealing a sharp set of teeth. "In the flesh."

"No way." Her words were less than a whisper. She poked his chest with a finger, and swept her gaze up and down his lean form. "You're real?"

He nodded. "Uh huh."

She continued to poke him. "Like really real."

Aidan scratched his chin. "Last I checked, yep." He flattened his hands over his chest. "Still real."

"Wow." Her mouth, stiff with shock, would not smile. "I can't believe it."

Aidan's white eyebrows tipped upwards into his hairline. "You doubted me?"

Rheanna blinked. "Of course not." Her cheeks heated in a pink blush.

He grinned, spotting her lie. "Where's the faith, Rhea?"

Jane stood up sharply and the chair beneath her crashed to the floor. "You're Aidan?"

Both Rhea and Aidan turned to face Jane. They blinked in surprise; both had forgotten she was there at all.

"Oh, sorry." Aidan waggled his fingers at Jane. "Are you her mother?"

"Aidan." Rhea touched his arm lightly, with just the tips of her fingers. "This is Jane. My mom." Her hand flattened on his arm and she drew it away quickly like she'd been burned. "You're really real." A smile curled her lips up and the ice in her eyes melted into a warm Caribbean blue. She giggled softly, cupping her hand over her mouth. "I was starting to think I'd imagined you."

Aidan flashed Rhea his best grin. Then he turned a steady look on her mother. "There's no way I can say this without being creepy, so I'm just going to go ahead and say it. My name is Aidan Evans, and I came here to find your daughter because I think she can help me." He blinked down at Rhea with an unwavering look of confidence. "Actually, I think she already has."

Jane edged towards Aidan with a wary look on her aged face. "You look just like . . ."

Her throat choked up as fear began to claw at her heart. Her daughter was standing so close to him. She wanted to reach out and rip her away from him. She wanted to flee. She couldn't let her daughter get any closer to him. She couldn't -

"Aidan?" Another voice called from the hallway. "Everything alright in there?"

"Come on in, dad!" Aidan nodded his head towards the hall. "You're gonna love this. Me and my dad, we look exactly alike."

"You have such an interesting face." Rhea's painter fingers were twitching. "So strong and sharp and –"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Jane screeched as Soul poked his head into the kitchen. "OUT! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE THIS INSTANT!"

"Jane!" Rheanna yelped at the same time Aidan backed away with a wary, "Calm down, lady. I'm just here to help –" His half-baked comment was cut off by his father's gasp of surprise.

"Clarissa?" he said, stepping completely into the kitchen. "Is that really you?"

Both Aidan and Rhea turned to blink at Soul.

"You know her?" Soul scowled at his father.

"Wait, her name's Jane, not Clarissa." Ice crept over the warm blue of Rhea's eyes.

"Soul." Jane/Clarissa's stomach dropped into her toes. Her gaze flitted from his stunned face to the wary, confused eyes of his son, to her daughter's hardening expression.

"What's going on?" Rhea's eyes flared with anger and she backed away from the room's three occupants. Unsure of who to trust, Rheanna took her mother's side, edging closer to Jane with small, side-steps.

Jane/Clarissa should've been happy.

Her daughter, a teenager struggling with depression, was backing her up. She'd taken her side – for once. Jane/Clarissa should've been rejoicing.

But her heart was too busy breaking.

Rhea had listened to her lies for years and now that she had the opportunity to finally see the truth, she would never be able to believe it.

All because of her.

"GET OUT! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE MY DAUGHTER!" Jane/Clarissa grabbed her daughter's arm and jerked her roughly behind her. Her chest heaved and the liver cells in her lungs prodded sharply at her lung's thin lining. "I'll be damned if she ends up at that wretched academy! I won't let her. . ." Breathing became a problem. "I won't let _you_ –!" she tried again.

"Jane!" Rhea tapped her mother on the back with nervous, shaky fingers. "What's wrong? Are you –?"

"STAY BACK!" Jane/Clarissa shoved her daughter backwards, splaying her hand over her chest. "You can't help!"

Rhea yelped as the force of her mother's shove slammed her into the kitchen wall. Her head cracked against the plaster and she collapsed into a heap, blinking dizzily at her mother with wide blue eyes.

"Rhea!" Aidan's hands clenched into fists at his side. He eyed the gap between Jane/Clarissa and his meister with cautious eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Can't help!" Jane/Clarissa's breathing got even weaker. Her knees collapsed and she fell onto her forearms. She was like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Every movement brought her pain, every breath shattered her fragile lungs until a gasp of air was almost too much for the poor woman to bear. "I need . . . my daughter . . . safe . . ." Her head fell onto the tile and Aidan skirted around her body to where his meister was struggling to sit up.

Soul knelt down in front of Jane/Clarissa as Liz and Patty rushed through the open front door. The whole swirled into darkness as Rhea called out for her mother with shaky, uncertain screams.

_No_. Her last thoughts were bubbles of light that barely broke the waves of darkness dragging her out to sea. _She can't . . . be . . . a meister. Not like . . . her father_.

The bubbles burst and the darkness was all consuming. She drowned quietly with nothing but her own labored breathes to keep her company.


	8. The Big C becomes the Big D

New chapter yay! And another cliffhanger. sorry. This one's kind of gruesome towards the end, but I was just trying to be as real as possible, know what I mean? I'm not faking anything with this story. This story is pretty real and raw, to me at least, so I hope you guys feel that way. Hope you like it, as always. And let me know what you think

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Chapter 8

**MEISTER**

The doctor moved away with a silent frown. He held his clipboard between himself and the sadness of his patients, using it like a wall to block out his emotions.

Rhea stared after him with a vacant look. Her eyes were ice, partially melted. The liquid drops began to spill down her cheeks in cold, fat droplets. Aidan sat at her side with his head down. He ran a hand through his spiky hair and snuck a look at Rhea out of the corners of his red eyes. She wiped her nose and pretended not to notice.

"You okay?" Aidan reached out for her with his voice.

"I'm fine." If she didn't look at him, she could almost pretend he wasn't there; they were just having another one of their late-night phone conversations. It felt better that way – if he wasn't there he couldn't see her tears.

"No you're not." She could hear the frown in his voice. "That's a stupid response."

"Well, you asked a stupid question." She reached back and pulled her hair into a loose bun. The hairband slapped against her wrist as she tied it around her hair and she cussed softly.

Aidan waited until she'd settled back into her seat. "You're devastated."

"She never told me."

"I think she was about to. Before I walked in."

"You can't know that."

"I have a feeling."

"Screw your feelings."

"Rhea."

"Screw you too."

Her gaze drifted to the side. The lights from a hospital gift shop winked brightly at her. In the front of the store, she saw loving, get-well soon presents like teddy bears and cards and balloons. Cheap plastic flowers stuck in a cheap plastic vase waved in the breeze conducted by an industrial air-vent above the display. Rhea slipped her hand into her pocket. A few greasy dollar bills slid across her fingers.

"Maybe you should go talk to her." Aidan's fingers tapped against the arm rest of his chair.

"She's not awake yet." She was still peering into the hospital gift shop. "Didn't you hear the old smelly doctor?"

"He wasn't smelly."

"Yes, he was." Her wrists were burning beneath her sweatshirt sleeves. "He smelled like antiseptic and death."

Aidan chuckled softly. "Funny."

She slid him a tempered look. "What?"

"Death doesn't smell like the inside of a hospital, Rhea." His eyes were rubies in the center of his head.

"How would you know?" She whipped around to face the gift shop's front entrance.

He laughed again and every nerve Rhea had stood on edge. "'Cause I've met the guy."

She stood up sharply. "I'm going to get some air." She stormed off in the direction of the gift shop without waiting for his reply.

_There's got to be some necessities in there_, she thought as she neared the fake cheerful teddy bears and fake punny cards. _Like a toothbrush, toothpaste, a razor . . . _

**WEAPON**

"Where's she going?" Soul sat down beside his son with three cupful's of crappy hospital coffee.

Aidan took one and slurped a bit of the mocha whip off the top. "The gift shop. I think she's going to get something for her mom."

"How sweet." Soul's voice lacked emotion.

Aidan slid his father a look. "What's up?"

His father sighed, playing with the thick black hairband in his hair. "I just had a chat with the doctor."

Aidan sipped his coffee. "And?"

"Stage Three lung cancer." Soul's knuckles were white around his coffee cup.

"That's bad, right?"

Soul swirled the coffee around in his cup, watching the pale black grounds float to the surface. "Considering there are only four stages . . ." He took a sip. "There's a large colony in her lungs and one surrounding her lymph nodes. It hasn't spread to other parts of her body yet, but the doctors say it's only a matter of time."

Aidan looked down at the slick tiled floor. "What about Chemotherapy?"

Soul nodded. "They're going to try it, but the doctor didn't sound hopeful. He didn't even smile. He looks just as dead inside as Rhea is."

"So there's no hope?" Aidan's hand fisted around his cup. "That can't be right."

Soul slid his son a look. "It might be best to get her out of here before she realizes just how bad it is."

Aidan's gaze drifted towards the gift shop Rhea had disappeared into. "'Cause if she finds out . . ."

"She'll never leave." The two weapons said together.

Aidan abandoned his coffee and dropped his head into his hands. "This is crap. This is. Such. Crap."

Soul knew he wasn't talking about the coffee.

He rested his hand on his son's shoulder gently. "We knew it wasn't going to be easy."

"I'm not talking about us." Aidan shook his head roughly. "This is crap for her. I mean, that's her _mom_ for Death's sake."

"Her name here is Jane Morrison." Soul leaned back in his seat and linked his arms behind his head.

The door directly ahead of him was open slightly. Inside, he could see the young-old woman's sleeping body. A nurse was playing with the tubes poked into her frail skin and a silver heart monitor beeped steadily.

"You called her Clarissa." Aidan looked at his father.

Soul sighed heavily. "I knew her." He corrected himself with a cringe, "_Know_ her."

"You _knew_ her when she was Clarissa." Aidan sat up and eyed his father apprehensively. "So tell me, how do you know her?"

Soul slid the double doors of the gift shop a heavy look. "She can't hear."

"I won't tell her." Aidan nodded firmly. _Not yet, anyway._

Soul sighed again. "She went to the Academy." His gaze found Clarissa's sleeping body. "Her name was Clarissa Lovan back then."

"Was she in your grade?" Aidan asked.

Soul nodded. "Yep. She was a nice girl, but a pretty average weapon. Her partner was a fairly average meister too, so they didn't get a lot of the missions your mother and I went on. I knew _of_ her, but I didn't know her personally."

"Who was her meister?"

"Ummm." Soul rubbed his head. "Some guy . . . I think his name was Harrison. Harrison something. He was a nice guy. I talked to him a couple times. Pretty chill, both in a fight and out of one. He was a sword meister, I think."

"So that would make Rhea's mother . . ."

Soul nodded. "A human sword."

"Oh God." Aidan's head dipped between his shoulder blades. "How am I going to tell her?"

"I think they were _together_ during their time at the academy. And I remember she got pregnant – with Rhea obviously – and left the academy for a normal life. It was really shocking at the time. But I guess we all kind of forgot about her." Soul continued his story with a thoughtful look on his face.

"So then this Ben Morrison guy, her father in California, is he Harrison?" Aidan rubbed the back of his neck.

Soul nodded. "Probably." He rubbed a hand over his jaw, playing with the white stubble there. "Although . . . the more I think about it, the more I think that can't be right."

A white eyebrow disappeared into Aidan's hairline. "What makes you say that?"

Soul shook his head. "I don't know." He tipped his head down and scrubbed the back of his head with both hands. Then he stood and looked toward a row of phone booths across the hospital lobby. "I'm going to call Liz and Patty. See if they remember more than I do."

"Are they at her house?" Aidan stood, slipping his hands into his pockets.

Soul nodded distractedly. "Go find your meister. We might have to start explaining some things to her soon and that'll go better for all of us if she has some food in her belly when we start."

"Alright." Aidan strolled off in the direction of the hospital gift shop.

**MEISTER**

She tossed the razor into the trash can and left the bathroom with a weary sigh. She rolled her sleeves down over the fresh bandages on her wrist and staggered toward the row of chairs where she'd last seen Aidan.

_Too much_, she thought, collapsing into the sticky plastic chair. She tipped her head back towards the ceiling and watched the checkered tiles dance across her field of vision. _I lost too much._

But it was alright. The pain was gone. She felt fine, aside from the dizziness. Pleasantly numb on the inside.

"Maybe now I can face my mother," she murmured to herself.

She waited a few minutes until the spinning calmed to a more manageable level. She munched on a pack of crackers she'd bought in the gift shop and sipped some stale coffee left near her seat to try and ease the effects of the blood loss. When standing didn't make her want to pass out, she moved towards the open door of her mother's hospital room.

A dark shadow stood just inside the doorway, looking down at her mother's sleeping form. Rhea slid closer and the shadow retreated through the doorway to make room for her at the threshold. Something red glimmered in the darkness by her mother's bed as the shadow turned to look at her.

"Aidan?" she asked, stepping into the room. "Is that you?" Her legs wobbled unsteadily and she caught herself on the mattress of her mother's bed. "What are you –?" Her question died as her hands, reaching forward onto the narrow bed to help pull herself up, slid into a dark, sticky liquid.

"What the hell?" she raised her hands into the light. "Is this . . ." Her stomach dropped into her toes as bright red blood, mixed with dark droplets of some strange black liquid, trailed down her hands, staining the sleeves of her sweatshirt. "_Blood_?"

She backed away with her hands held out in front of her. "What, what . . .?" Her mind was having trouble forming words. "Jane! What's wrong with –?"

A hole. Her mother's chest was one big hole. Right where her lungs would be. Blood and black liquid leaked from the holes ragged edges. Squirts of bloody bubbles coated the thin blanket thrown over the hole as Rhea's mother struggled to breathe.

"JANE!" Rhea screamed, reaching forward for her mother's bedside. "JANE! Are you –?"

Rhea lunged forward and fell, slipping across the tile floor of her mother's hospital room. A dark blade cut through the air where she'd been standing not two seconds ago, burying itself into the tile by her foot.

"What?" Rhea breathed, watching the blade's wielder pry the sticky black blade from the groove between the tiles. "What! Who are you?"

"You don't recognize me?" the shadow's voice was a husky chuckle. He stepped forward into the light.

He was dark brown hair, thinning around the crown, and weary green eyes. He was a mole beside his mouth and ugly lines carved across his forehead and around his eyes. He was a dark sports suit. He was heavy-set and obnoxious. He was . . .

"RHEA!" Aidan stood behind the man with a fearful look in his red eyes. His white hair stood on end and his left arm flashed a brilliant sky blue as Rhea watched. "STAY AWAY FROM HER YOU BASTARD!"

"Shame." The man lumbered forward with the dark blade in his heavy hand. Another hung on a loop at his waist, dripping the same black liquid Rhea had found around the hole in her mother's chest. "Not to recognize your own father."

Her wrists were on fire as her gaze slid between her dying mother and the nightmare lumbering towards her. "Ben."


	9. FIGHT!

I'M SOOO SORRRRY! The wait was much longer than I expected and I'm so sorry for that - it took me a really long time to write this chapter because (as I'm sure you'll find out) I'm not very good with fight scenes. So, despite the wait, here it is. And thanks everyone for the support, I will continue this story and (hopefully) update faster since I've got the next few chapters planned out already. Okay. Without further delay, here it is. Chapter Nine. Hope you like it and tell me what you think!

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Chapter 9

**MEISTER**

Rhea ducked, narrowly avoiding Ben's next swing. The heavy black blade clanged against the rough tile, shedding dark droplets on Rhea's skirt. She scrabbled around Ben's huge figure, ducking towards Aidan's knees.

"GET BACK HERE!" Ben shouted, digging his blade out of the tile and swinging it at Rhea with mad desperation.

"Jane!" Rhea cried, scrabbling for purchase on the tile floor. "Jane!"

The heart monitor beside Jane's bed was beeping wildly, coupled with long pauses of eerie flat-line beeping.

"GET UP!" Aidan hooked Rhea under the armpits, dragging her out of the room on her bum. "GET UP, RHEA!"

They slid out of the hospital door and into the half deserted waiting room, falling backwards onto the tile together. Rhea gasped as her head slammed into Aidan's gut and his knee dug into her spine. He groaned, grabbing her hand by the wrist and pulling him off of her and onto her feet.

"We need to move." He backed away with Rhea's hand in his, watching the hospital room door with wide, red eyes. "Now."

"Code blue!" A blur of pastel scrubs flashed by Rhea's eyes; a doctor and a team of nurses were headed towards Jane's room. "We have a situation here! Call everyone you ca –!"

Ben came out of the hospital room swinging, sinking his blade deep into the doctor's chest. He went down with black blood on his face, clutching at his chest with wild, groping fingers. The nurses scattered, screaming wildly, but they were not quick enough to avoid Ben's rage.

"Dad!" Aidan's hand tightened around Rhea's as the hospital waiting room erupted into chaos. He jerked his head towards the phone booths on the other side of the room. "DAD!"

Mr. Evans slammed the phone down and ran towards the two teenagers, eyes widening with every step.

"Is that –?" he gasped when he approached them.

"RHEANNA!" Ben was headed for her, limping slightly, but nonetheless deterred. "I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU!"

Bodies piled behind him; some still twitching with life, others freshly dead. Life faded from their eyes as Rhea watched; dull, glassy colors replaced the vibrant hues of their irises, their faces paled with blood loss as their hearts stopped beating. Bile rose in Rhea's throat, mixing with swallowed salt tears.

"My mom." Rhea backed away with Aidan, knocking into the row of plastic chairs lining the room's plaster wall. Her skirt caught beneath her heel, ripping halfway up the leg, close to the knee. "He . . . killed my . . . mom."

"Get her out of here!" Mr. Evans jerked his head towards the other side of the room.

People were flocking down the stairs, screaming wildly with their hands thrown up in abandon. One lonely nurse still manned the reception area, dialing 911 with shaky, bloodless fingers. Looking closer, Rhea saw that the woman behind the desk wasn't a nurse at all; it was a pregnant mother with another child clinging to her skirt.

"But, Dad!" Aidan's fingers tightened around Rhea's. "We can –!"

"NOT YET, YOU IDIOT!" Mr. Evans's arm began to flash a brilliant, sky blue. "Can't you see she's not ready!?"

Rhea backed up half a step, glancing towards Ben who was smiling at her with the glowing eyes of a psychopath. "What's he –?"

"GO!" Soul shouted, ducking Ben's first sword swing.

Aidan and Rhea ran like hell, pushing past other frantic people headed for the stairway. Aidan cut through the crowd with his broad shoulders, tugging Rhea behind him in a desperate dash for the exit.

"My mother!" Rhea screamed above the cacophonous sound of panicked people. "Jane! Aidan, she's –!"

"Don't think about it." Aidan's hand was tight around hers, dragging her forward down the crowded stairs. "Just don't."

"But, Aidan –!"

A loud crunch, born of metal caving beneath a solid force, blasted through the stairwell, shocking the frightened people. As one, they turned back, watching as a heavy-set man, Ben, crashed through the door, swinging his twin black blades.

Rhea's scream was lost in the dozens that accompanied it.

The man behind her pressed his palms into her shoulder-blades, pushing her forward onto Aidan's shoulder. Her arm bent behind his back, lodged between them, and Rhea cried out in pain.

"RUN!" the man behind her screamed, clawing at her side with desperate fingers. "FOR GOD'S SAKE, KEEP GOING!"

Rhea yanked her palm from Aidan's as he turned, catching her around the waist. "Hold on," he screamed in her ear, turning and dropping over the side of the stairway rail.

They dropped four flights before Aidan caught the rail again. Rhea's head was buried in his chest, her screaming mouth clamped around her own wrist. Her dark hair spilled underneath his hand as he reached down with a free hand and grabbed her hands, placing them on the railing beneath his own.

"Don't let go." His breathing was rough in her ear, colored with a tinge of desperation. "I'm _not_ letting you die here."

"Okay." Rhea focused on coaxing the air down her throat and into her lungs. "No dying. Got it."

He laughed harshly, pulling himself up over the railing over her.

"NO!" Ben screeched behind them – above them, beyond them, whatever – and the harsh sound of metal screeching against metal echoed down the stairwell towards them.

"Let's go." Aidan pulled her up after him.

"Dude, you've got to be ripped," she gasped when Aidan set her feet down on the stairwell. "'Cause I'm heavy."

He grabbed her hand and they flew down the stairs, racing down the last flight before the ground floor. "No, you're not."

"I'm glad you're real," she panted as he kicked open the bottom floor stairway door. Rhea's brain was filled with a hundred, no, a thousand fuzzy thoughts. Occasionally, they left her mouth in an odd flurry of words before vanishing into the thick blanket of fear taking over her mind. "It'd be weird if you weren't."

"Is this really the time?" he jerked her forward, closing his hand tightly around her palm.

They burst into the hospital lobby, shoes squeaking on the rough tile. Nurses and doctors stared in shock as the pair raced out into the dimming afternoon sun. Behind them, close to sixty people surged out of the stairway door with a madman snapping at their heels.

"It's how I (pant) deal with (pant) stress!"

"Try (pant) yoga!"

The air swirled around them, nipping at their exposed skin with cold fingers. A breeze brought with it the smoky smell of fall, tugging at Rhea's long skirt and the sweatshirt around her middle. They backed away from the doors of the hospital, panting in the cool air.

Behind them, night reached its arm across the land, pushing down the yawning sun.

"Now what?!" Rhea tripped on her skirt, reaching down with her free hand to bunch the loose material above her knee. "Where is he?"

"We forced him off the stairs." As Aidan talked, the hospital doors opened, letting out a flood of panicked people. They took off in all directions, running away from the eerily bright lights of the hospital and vanishing into the darkening night. A few terrified nurses remained, looking around for the psychopath responsible for inspiring so much fear.

"What!?" Rhea took another step back, but Aidan's tightening grip drew her to a stop.

"If he wanted to catch us before we made the exit, he'd have to have gotten off on another floor." Aidan's red eyes narrowed as they scanned across the brick face of the dumpy little hospital. "But since he hasn't caught us that means . . ."

Glass crackled above them, shattering the still night air. The moon grinned upon the frightened meister-weapon duo as a man with blindingly white hair sailed out of the second story window, crashing on the grass not far from Rhea's knocking knees.

"Mr. Evans!" she cried, reaching for him.

"He's fine!" Aidan kept a firm grip on her hand, stilling her frantic movements.

She blinked at him with icy blue eyes. "He fell two stories!"

"He's made of sturdy stuff, my dad." Aidan didn't look at his father as he propped himself up onto his elbows, coughing blood onto the grass. His arm flashed in the darkness, bent at an oddly curved angle.

"His arm!" Rhea pointed, staring in horror as Soul flipped over, revealing the scythe blade his arm had become. "Oh my . . . what the hell?"

Ben's dark shape jumped out of the broken window, landing heavily on the grass just a few paces in front of Rhea. He straightened with an evil grin, holding his blades up in the leering moonlight.

"Daughter," he coughed, sliding into an awkward, hunting crouch. His eyes glinted evilly, like a hyena on the brink of a wicked bout of laughter. "Nice to see you."

Rhea swallowed nosily. "Don't . . ." She backed away, edging behind Aidan with a miserable moan. "Don't call me that."

"What would you prefer?" He took another step, still lowered in a weird half-crouch. "Rheanna?" Her name soured on his thick tongue. "Poor, pitiful Rheanna." His head tilted at an odd angle as his rabid eyes scoured her shivering form. "Are you like your mother? Like good old, Soul Eater Evans?" He tipped the blades towards Soul on the grass. "Oh, yes. I know all about you, Soul. Clarissa told me _everything_." His dark gaze swung back to Rhea. "Or are you _something else_?"

"Rhea." Aidan's voice was so cold it froze the blue in her eyes. He jerked her forward so they were standing side-by-side. Rhea shivered and tried to scoot behind him, but he straightened her arm to keep her still. His grip on her hand tightened until his knuckles were white around her palm. "Don't let go of my hand, okay?"

"What?" Rhea looked between their joined hands and Aidan's determined face.

"No matter what happens." He peered at her out of the corners of his eyes, rubies burning beneath fringing locks of white hair. "Don't." His hand tightened. "Let." It was almost painful now. "Go."

"Now it begins." Ben's grin poisoned the air around him. He sank deeper into his twisted crouch.

"Aidan!" Soul's voice was a raspy cough, barely loud enough for Rhea to hear. "His blades . . ." Something dark trickled out of the corner of his mouth. "_Black_ . . . _blood_."

Aidan nodded sharply, baring his sharp teeth at Ben's dark form. "Got it."

"Don't . . . let it . . . cut her." Soul dropped onto the ground, clutching the fabric of his shirt, pulling it away from his skin.

"Is he –?" Rhea tugged at Aidan's sleeve.

"Don't think about it." He yanked her hand, drawing her gaze towards him. "Promise me you won't let go."

"Why would I –?"

"Promise!"

"Okay, okay." She squeezed his hand. "I promise."

"Are you ready now?" Ben swung his swords in a wide arc over his head. "I promise to give you a fair fight if you show me what you've got, daughter of mine."

"I'm not –!" She sighed; it wasn't worth the energy to protest.

"Let's go, Rhea," Aidan said quietly, closing his eyes.

"Okay . . ." She trailed off as Aidan's hand began to shake in hers.

His skin flashed blue – a deep watery blue; fluid like the color of her eyes. His hand disappeared, growing longer and taller until it was no longer a hand, no longer human. A tall, silver pole shifted between her fingers in its place with thick black stripes running down the sides. On the end of the blade, a red and black blade shone, curving and checkered with sharp-looking triangles. A red eye blinked at Rhea as a silver lid shuttered down across the black pupil. The change settled all across the blade and the blue flash melted off its surface. The blade became solid and heavy in her hands, rolling across her palm.

"W-h-a-t." Rhea breathed the word, stretching it across four shocked syllables. Her fingers loosened on the blade's handle as her eyes stretched in her head. "What . . .?"

"Rhea?" Aidan's voice was a cautious question, reaching out through the empty air towards her. "Rheanna?"

"No." How did she breathe? In and out, right? Shape the air with your mouth, swallow it into your lungs. Well, something must have been going wrong because no matter how hard she tried she could not get a breath. "No . . . what's –?"

"Ahhhhh." Ben lumbered towards her, filling the night air with his harsh, dark laughter. "You're not a weapon."

"A –?"

"You're a _meister_." He was four steps away. "Do you know how lucky you are to have been born with such a gift?"

". . . meister . . .?" Rhea's couldn't seem to think in complete sentences; a question mark accompanied everything that left her mouth. "What –?"

Three steps. "And you, boy, are just like your father." Two steps. "A _scythe_ fit for a _scythe meister_."

"WHAT IS –!?"

"And you, Rheanna." He was right on top of her. "Are definitely." He raised one blade. "Your father's." He raised the other. "_DAUGHTER_!"

"MOVE, RHEA!" The order came from a distance, harsh and tinny, sounding from the blade in her hand.

Rhea lunged to the side, rolling in the thick grass. Ben's blade sank into the grass where she'd been standing, shedding dirt and thin green stalks everywhere. Rhea's arms hooked around the blade's shaft and she stood, dragging it up with her. Her fingers loosened their death grip, allowing the weapon to swing forward. It collided in mid-air with one of Ben's short blades. Dark droplets spattered across the blade's surface, dropping to eat away at the grass beneath.

"To the right!"

Rhea twisted, knocking Ben's sword arm away. She dodged his next swing of her own accord, tripping over her feet and rolling down the grassy incline away from the hospital's doors.

"Block, now!"

The scythe swung up, holding back the two blades bearing down on her. Her back dug into the grass as Ben pressed harder, forcing his weight upon her. She grunted, using the blade's shaft to knock Ben's wrists away from her. The blades landed on either side of her head, sinking deep into the grass.

"NO!" he cried as Rhea kicked upwards, clocking him in the gut.

She popped up as he rolled to the side, backing away with harsh, panting breathes. She spat a lock of dark hair out of her mouth and wiped at a smudge of dirt under her jaw.

"_Pathetic_." Ben spat, propping himself up on one knee. "Is that the best you've got, _girl_?"

Rhea's fingers loosened on the blade's handle. "I can't . . . What am I doing? I'm not a . . ."

"Rhea!" The blade's surface flashed the same watery blue as her eyes. Aidan blinked at her, glaring from inside the blade. White eyebrows tipped down over hard ruby eyes as his bare collarbone shifted into view. "You promised!"

". . . what . . .?"

"Don't let go." Mr. Evans stood beside her, breathing harshly. Black liquid dripped down from his hairline and traced a thin, jagged line across his chest. He slid her a look out of the corners of his eyes, turning his arm into a blade similar to the one she was holding. "You promised not to let go of Aidan's hand, Rheanna."

Rhea looked at the scythe in her hands. Her mouth opened; her eyes nearly rolled back in her head. "You're inside the blade?!" Her voice was very small in the darkness.

He bared his teeth in a pointy grin. "Not quite."

"He _is_ the blade." Ben was on his feet again, aiming his twin swords at Soul and Rhea. "That's what it means to be a weapon, Rhea. They become what the meister wields."

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod." Rhea's body was buzzing. Her frail nerves snapped like dry twigs and the blade – Aidan, the blade, Aidan, whateverthehell – slipped from her grasp. "Nononononono."

"RHEA!"

Soul reached over with his free hand and closed her fingers around Aidan's handle. He held his scythe arm out in front of her, like a shield, and bent close to her.

"You're the only meister for my son," he breathed into her ear. "Use him well."

Then he darted forward, swinging his blade high into the air above Ben's head.

"Okay." Rhea sucked in a deep cold breath, pushing her sleeves up above her elbows. Her wrists stung in the open air, but the darkness acted like a muffle for the pain screaming along the skin there. "Okay. You're a blade. That's okay."

"I'm a scythe," he corrected. The eye at the top of the handle – his eye, _Aidan's_ eye – watched her cautiously.

"And I . . . what do I do?"

"Swing me."

She wanted to laugh.

But she couldn't.

Beyond them, the fight between Ben and Soul was not going well. Sparks and black blood rained from the two men, dripping into the grass and sucking the oxygen from the air. She needed to help Soul. She needed to fight Ben. But . . .

"How do I . . .?"

"Don't worry." He flashed from within the blade, long enough to toss her a pointy grin. "I'll lead."

She nodded sharply, swinging him up into the air and catching him in the crook of her elbow. "For now."

She waited for a lull in the battle then sprung, jumping as high as she could into the dark air. Her skirt flapped behind her as she turned, swinging Aidan down in a long arc. He collided with one blade, then the other, then the first for a second time. She jumped back and Soul darted in, swinging his arm in a shallow cut towards Ben's arm.

They continued to dance back and forth, digging and cutting at Ben without making any real progress. Soul was a tired weapon without his meister and Rhea was, to put it lightly, _new_ to being a meister. But, they were better off than Ben.

He wasn't even a meister.

Not even close.

"Block!"

"Spin! Right swing, NOW!"

"Left! YOUR OTHER LEFT!"

"Block, you idiot. Now! Swing down and catch him on the ground! Nice one!"

"BLOCK, DAMMIT! You'll get yourself killed if you don't keep your guard up!"

"From below!"

"We've got him!"

"Good job!"

"Let's go, Rhea!"

Aidan shouted from within the blade, firing harsh orders at her to keep her alive. The praise was few and far between, but each tiny compliment helped to ease the injured soul nestled within her breast.

"I'm doing it!" Her sharp pant was heard by no one other than her weapon. "I can do it."

"Feels good, doesn't it?" The eye narrowed.

She nodded. The tightness in her chest, the pain in her wrist, all of it: gone. She couldn't feel any of it.

Her icy eyes narrowed and a sharp smile curled her lips up. "It feels right."

"RHEANNA!" Two high screams knocked Rhea off her feet, cutting her legs at the knees.

"What . . .?" She fell forward, rolling away from Ben on the grass. She crouched mechanically, kneeling at Soul's feet. Aidan shook in her bloodless fingers. "Is that . . .?"

"Rhea?" Aidan's face flashed in the blade. "What's wrong?"

"UGH!" Soul collapsed, clutching at his chest and Aidan's gaze flashed to his father. "DAD!"

"RHEANNA!" The screams were closer now, right by her ear, as Ben threw the blades at her.

They buried themselves in the dirt beneath her armpits, tearing at the cotton fabric of her old sweatshirt. She didn't move as Ben lunged at her, reaching for the blade's with an eerie grin. Aidan's shouts fell on deaf ears as Rhea cowered beneath Ben's hulking shape. Her teeth chattered as the blades screamed her name, shouting at her to run, to escape.

"It can't be!" Her mouth formed the words, but they didn't make it past the lump in her throat.

The ice in her eyes melted, pooling in big, soupy puddles beneath the bags in her eyes. The blades screamed as Ben pulled them from the earth, holding them above her head.

"You hear them, don't you?" His grin matched the one in the sky, dripping off the moon in slanting yellow moonbeams. "Poor things, aren't they?"

"No." Her chest rose and fell rapidly as Ben drove the blade's down between her breasts. "NO!"

"NOOOOO!" Three voices chorused her agonized protest as a heavy weight landed on Rhea's chest.


	10. Story Time with Aidan and Rheanna

New chapter yay! Sorry for the delay (again) but hey, it'll give you time to read my other stuff! :) hope you like it and tell me what you think!

* * *

Chapter 10

**WEAPON**

"So you're Rheanna Morrison." Lord Death smiled down at Rhea with his cat eyes opened wide. "The meister I've been hearing so much about lately."

She played with the sleeves of her sweatshirt, twisting her arms behind her back. "And you're the yellow-eyed demon who met me on the beach." She cocked her head at a weird angle, inspecting the outwards circles bending around Kid's pupils. "Your eyes look different now."

Kid didn't flinch at Rheanna's poor choice of words, but his eyebrows did tilt upwards. "Pardon?"

"Your eyes." Rheanna leaned forward, stretching herself onto her tiptoes. "They look less yellow." She leaned even closer until she and Lord Death were practically nose-to-nose. "More orange."

Before Kid had time to recover, she rocked back, linking her arms behind her back. "They're still pretty, though. More sunrise than morning glow." Aidan noticed a slight tremble rocking her arms neat the base of her wrists.

"I'm Lord Death." Kid continued with his introduction, skipping over Rheanna's odd commentary on the color of his eyes. "I run this school, the DWMA. Has Aidan shown you around yet?"'

"No." Aidan stepped up beside his meister, slipping his hands into his pockets. "We just got back; I was planning on showing her around tomorrow."

Kid nodded at the young weapon, noting the warm, fuzzy glow that had enveloped his cracked soul. "Good." He stepped back, clasping his arms behind his back. "Well. I suppose we had better start with some introductions. You've already met Soul, Aidan's father. This, right here, is his mother, Maka Albarn."

Aidan's mom stepped forward and greeted Rheanna with a warm smile. "It's nice to meet you, Rhea." She extended her hand towards the young meister.

Rhea spared Aidan's mother one glance before turning her face away. "Hi," she said quickly.

Maka faltered, stepping back with a hurt frown, but one look from her husband silenced Maka's troubled mind. Crona was next, followed by Black Star, Tsubaki, and a few other teachers, all of them ready to help Rheanna adjust to life in the DWMA. Aidan watched his meister float about the room with an odd frown on her face, drifting from person to person with nothing but a blank stare for each time they called her name.

"Shy." Aidan breathed, scrubbing his hands through his hair. He was dying for a long, hot shower and a couple minutes alone with his meister. "Shy and pained. Beautiful and broken." His ruby gaze rolled skywards. "What a mess I've gotten myself into."

"Miss Morrison." Lord Death recalled her attention and brought the room to a still silence. "Before I let you go, I would like you to explain to me what happened last night."

Rhea stepped back half a step, faltering in her cool, expressionless walk. "I was attacked by Ben Morrison who tried to kill me after fatally wounding my mother with a pair of black-blood covered demon blades." Her voice was steady in monotone; a practiced speech spoken without emotion.

Kid's lips twitched upwards. "In your own words, please."

The cool mask covering Rhea's pale face crumbled and her arms crossed around her middle, baring her insecurities to the world. "I . . ." Her voice trembled as the eyes of the DMWA's top weapons and meisters crowded around her. "I . . . don't think I can."

"Do your best, Rheanna." Kid stepped forward and reached like he was going to lay his hand on her shoulder. "This isn't a test. You're not being graded for your response."

Rheanna darted back half a step, bumping into Crona who caught her with a steadying hand on the crook of her elbow. Aidan's meister squeaked and twisted to get away from his arm, but Crona held her fast, shuffling her gently from his grip to Aidan's.

"Sorry, Rhea." Aidan circled his fingers around her wrist, squeezing softly. "I'm so sorry."

"You know." Rhea didn't look at him, but her voice was soft enough so only he could hear it. "You know what happened."

"But _I_ can't tell them."

"Neither can I!" She still wouldn't look at him.

"Rhea . . ."

"Aidan!"

"I understand you were injured by your father's blades." Lord Death relaxed his hands, letting them hang openly at his sides. His sharp, brooding face smoothed into an uncharacteristically neutral expression and his eyes relaxed into their normal yellow color. "We can start there. Tell me what happened after that."

Maka's eyes slid towards her husband's. A silent word slipped between them and Soul shook his head sharply.

Rhea swallowed three times, edging away from Aidan with every breath. His grip on her wrist loosened until she shook him off, standing straight and tall in front of the gathered eyes of the DWMA faculty. "I wasn't injured."

Lord Death nodded. "I see."

"Really." Rhea's hands flattened across her chest where the blade had struck, but not pierced her skin. "Those blades would never injure me."

Lord Death's head bobbed along with a few other. "I understand."

Rhea's hands balled into shivering fists. "No, you don't! Those blades, those twin swords, they were my . . . my . . . my . . ." Her eyes hardened into two chips of blue ice. "Sisters. Those blades were my sisters."

The eyes in the room grew wide with shock.

"And another thing." Rhea's trembling grew more pronounced. "Ben Morrison isn't my father."

* * *

Two dark shapes landed on Rhea's chest with a squish and the young meister's face exploded in pain. Aidan flashed out of weapon form, dragging his meister out from under her psychotic father.

"NO!" he cried, dragging Rhea through the grass towards him. "No, YOU CAN'T DIE!"

"AIDAN! Move!"

Aidan had barely cleared a path for his father when Soul darted forward, landing three solid kicks on Ben's lower back. His sword arm slashed through the false meister's meaty upper arm and the heavy-weighted man crumpled with hard, cussing breathes. Soul paused, sparing his son a brief pitying glance over his shoulder. "Is she –?"

Aidan curled his arms around Rhea's slender form. He lowered his white head until his ragged locks were resting on her forehead. "I think she's –" His hands shook with red-hot rage.

"I'm fine," she interrupted him in a ragged whisper.

The two weapons glanced at her with wide-eyed astonishment. Aidan's mouth fell open and Soul chuckled harshly, turning back to Ben in time to avoid a sharp right-cross. As the two men fought, Aidan helped Rhea to sit up, staring at her bloodless face with wonder.

"You're alive." His tone was reverent as the two dark objects on her chest rolled off leaving a trail of dark liquid down her sweatshirt front. "I thought . . ."

"Relax, will ya?" Her voice was light, but her cheeks were ghostly pale. She rested her hand gently on his chest, balling her fist in the fabric. "I'm made of sturdy stuff, 'kay?"

He laughed before he could stop himself and Rhea flashed him a sharp warning glare. "Right. Okay. Sure you are."

"Rhea?" The dark shapes landed in her lap, sitting up and curling dark, chubby arms around her middle. "We don't want to hurt you!"

"What the –?"

Aidan blinked at the two small girls crying in Rhea's laps. His brain made the connection a second after his eyes did and his mouth fell open with a sharp pop.

The blades; they'd transformed into two dark-haired little girls. Pale skin and deep blue eyes flashed beneath undulating waves of black blood – the two girls were covered in the stuff. It dripped from their pigtails, squashed beneath their feet, stained the fabric of their dresses, and rolled off their fingers in small, black raindrops. Crystal tears traced a path through the black liquid, pooling like oily water in the bags beneath their eyes. They gasped harshly, tugging on the front of Rhea's sweatshirt and burying their faces in the ruined fabric.

"SORRY!" they screamed into her sweatshirt, voices muffled by the thick fabric. "WE'RE SO SORRY, SISSY!"

Rhea's pale face stiffened into a blank mask as she rested her hands on the twins dripping heads. The black liquid squished beneath her fingers, digging into the crevices between her nails and staining her skin.

"Sissy . . .?" Aidan's gaze alighted on his meister. Pity kindled with a fierce sort of protectiveness settled into all the corners of his soul. "You're their –?"

"RUN, SISSY!" They pulled away from Rhea, clenching shaking fists around their sister's sweatshirt fabric. "YOU HAVE TO RUN! DADDY'S GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"DAMN RIGHT I AM!"

Aidan's arm collided with Ben's in mid-air. The heavy-set middle aged man shouted as a red gash dug through his arm. He staggered backwards onto Soul's fist and the white-haired weapon brought him down with a harsh thud.

"What do we do?" Aidan crouched in front of his meister. His sword arm arched around her, forming a protective circle around her slender form. He glanced down at the pitiful mewling girls crying in her lap.

Their harsh cries added a note of sorrow to the cacophonous symphony playing around them. Beyond the small painful reunion, Soul and Ben still fought, clanging and clashing with a flurry of sparks and fists punching into flesh. Ben's skin shredded like paper beneath Soul's blade, but he managed to stay on his feet, bleeding profusely, but fiercely determined.

"Rhea!" He called his meister's attention towards him. "What do we do?"

Her dark hair slapped against her cheeks as she shook her head wildly. "I don't know! What the hell are we supposed to do!?"

"You're the meister." Aidan tried to breathe calm, sending soothing thoughts towards the ball of fear radiating out from her core. "You call the shots here. Either we stay and help my dad or get your sisters out of here."

The pale fear slipped off her face and a cold look of determination slid into its place. "Get them out of here." Her arms tightened around their small bodies. "No question."

Aidan nodded and his sword arm switched back into a real one. "My dad can manage for a few minutes." He reached down and lifted Rhea onto her feet, picking the twins up by their dripping black arms. "Let's go."

Rhea reached for her other sister, locking her arms around the small girl. She bent and lifted her up, but fell onto the ground with a sharp cry.

"What?!" Aidan turned back to watch Rhea's sister slither out of her arms, poking at her sister's limp arms with timid fingers. "Rhea?"

"Aidan, I –" Her sweatshirt sleeves shifted further down on her pale wrists. Her face clenched in pain as her sister poked a spot just beyond her elbow crease. "I can't hold her . . ."

Dread and suspicion curled deep in the young weapon's gut. "Why not?"

"Aidan, I can't –"

"RUN, SISSY!" The twin in Aidan's arms screamed at the top of her lungs, eliciting a harsh groan from Aidan. "RUNNNN!"

"GOTCHA!" Ben reached for the girl beside Rhea, holding her high in the air by her black-blood-covered arm. "Thought you could escape me, eh?"

"NOOO!" The twin in Aidan's arm launched herself at Ben, pounding her little fists against his leg. "WON'T HURT SISSY! WON'T HURT SISSY!"

"What a shame!" Ben kicked Rhea's arm out of the way as she reached for her sister with shaky fingers. "You won't listen to your own father when he gives you an order." He grinned as Rhea screamed, lifting the other sister by her armpit. "Seems I'm going to have to teach you two some respect."

"You're not their father!" Rhea screamed, rolling onto her side and holding her arm against her chest. "You'll never be their father, or mine, you cruel heartless bastard! You're nothing but a mistake! The twisted step-father we all hated! You're SCUM! A PARASITE! A bottom-feeding –!"

Ben stomped on Rhea's arm with his foot, eliciting a high scream from her mouth and blood from the pre-made gashes on her wrists. "Might want to watch those cuts, hun. Looks like you're running out of room." His grin was deadly.

"Cuts?" The suspicion in Aidan's gut curled into full-fledged disappointment. "Oh no."

"Stay away from her!" Soul sliced at the false meister, but he turned sharply, dangling the two screaming children in front of Soul's face. Soul stopped dead with a pained look on his face.

"Uh uh uh!" He cackled, shaking the children back and forth in front of Soul's eyes. "Not so fast, Soul Eater. One wrong move and . . ."

"You lose your weapons." Aidan stepped towards Ben with his arm already a scythe blade. His eyes burned like raging flames in the center of his head. "You're only source of power."

Ben shrugged, shuffling back a step. "True, but is it really worth the two innocent lives of these _precious girls_?" he sneered, moving back even more. "Besides," he said when Soul and Aidan dared to follow him. "I can always make more. That's the good thing about the black blood; it's always there and there's always a weapon willing to try its power."

Aidan and his father shared a wary look. "What are you talking about?" Soul's voice was harsh. "The black blood is nothing but a curse, a horrible pain that nobody should have to live with."

"That's your opinion, Soul Eater." Ben's grin was crazy in the leering moonlight. "Mine's a little different."

"AIDAN!" Rhea screamed, forcing herself upright and pointing towards the broken window with her injured arm. Blood dropped from her wrists in fat, red droplets, soaking through the ruined fabric of her sweatshirt. "HE'S AFTER MY MOTHER! SHE'S A WEAPON TOO!"

Soul and his sons shared matching looks of horror, taking off after Ben who had already started running. The fat man moved surprisingly fast for his heavy form, darting through the hospital doors way ahead of Soul and Aidan. Rheanna screamed again and Aidan froze, torn between his meister's enemy, and the girl herself.

Soul shoved his son in the direction of his meister, snapping harshly. "Make sure she's okay, you idiot. I'll deal with her step-father."

Aidan nodded, running towards Rhea and kneeling at her sides. Blood pooled beneath her wrists in a dark, wet puddle staining the grass with red droplets. She passed out in his arms two seconds after she reached him, her head falling heavily on his folded knees.

_It's just as well_, Aidan thought, shifting a weary look towards his father who exited the hospital with his hands empty and his head hanging. _Better that she wasn't around to see him come back alone._

_Better that she doesn't know yet that we lost her mother._


	11. We Don't Always Get Along

New chapter yay! I was playing with the continuinty a little bit in these little couple chapter, so I really hope you guys didn't get confused. The story has officially picked up now since Rhea and Aidan are now officially partners so I thank all of you guys for sticking around long enough to get to this party. The support you guys have given me is just soo amazing, so thank you all so much! Okay, anyway, on with the story! Hope you like it and, as always, tell me what you think!

* * *

Chapter 11

**WEAPON**

When Rheanna finished her tale, the room was still, transfixed by her horrible story. Aidan had lived every moment of it and it still hit him hard – he and his father had failed. The bad guy had won. The black blood won out in the end, stealing away three people into the dead of the night, all relying on a man with an evil soul that needed to be purged. His hands clenched into fists.

Kid's eyes were deep and pitying. "Sounds like you've had a rough night, Rheanna."

Rheanna didn't look at him, didn't look at anyone. Her back was rigid and tough, but her eyes held fast to the ground. "You could say that," she said finally."

"I believe that's all the information I require at this point." Kid nodded to Liz and Patty who stood on the sidelines with two suitcases full of the stuff they'd snagged from Rhea's house. "If you'd like I can send you home, give you a place to stay, so you can rest for the night."

Rheanna finally looked up and the gratitude in her eyes sparkled like partially melted ice. "Thank you, yellow-eyes."

"Please." Kid's mouth tipped up in a neatly symmetrical smile. "Just call me Kid."

"Nah." Rhea shook her head, taking her suitcases from Liz and Patty. She was bold in her exhaustion, having relieved herself of a terrible weight and spreading her misery upon others stronger than her. "I'll stick with what I've got."

Kid's smile tipped higher.

"Where is she going to stay?" Maka rubbed her hands absently across her bulging bully.

The silence in the room dropped into nervous embarrassment. "Umm, err," the combined meisters and weapons scratched their heads. "Never really thought about that."

"She can stay in the DWMA dungeons," Kid announced proudly. "There's plenty of spare rooms down there."

Maka and Crona exchanged a despairing look.

They stepped forward, waving their hands back and forth in front of Kid. "Umm, I don't think that's such a good idea . . ." they said together.

Kid frowned. "Why not?"

Another weary look passed between Maka and her friend.

"She could stay with us." Aidan shrugged, slipping his hands into his pockets. He turned to face his father, sliding Rheanna a cautious look out of the corner of his eyes. "After all, you and mom lived together when you were weapon partners, right, dad?"

Soul rubbed the back of his neck, raising his gaze to his wife's eyes. "It's not a bad idea. And we've got plenty of room . . ." his voice trailed off. He looked toward his wife.

"No way." Rhea's dark hair swung forward into her eyes as she shook her head sharply. She set her suitcases down and cross her arms over her chest. "I'm not staying with _him_." She jerked her chin in Aidan's direction.

He sighed heavily. "I guess I deserve that."

She slid him a heavy look.

"Here we go again." Soul threw up his hands, rocking back on his heels as the rest of the room stared on in confusion.

"Look, you said your peace back at the house, alright? Now just let it drop," Aidan grumbled, slouching with a petulant tilt to his chin. "I'm sorry, okay? Now quit whining."

"You lied to me." Rhea glared at him with frostbitten blue eyes. "Don't think I'm letting you off the hook so easy."

"God, give it a rest." Aidan rubbed the back of his neck. "I've done a lot more than lot to you in the past couple of days. I've saved your ass numerous times and helped you get through the worst twelve hours of your life. Don't I get a gold star for that, at least?"

"No." Fear and pain swirled in Rhea's icy blue eyes along with a great deal of anger. "You arrogant jerk."

Aidan ground his teeth together.

"Living together is a good way to match soul wavelengths." Kid rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. "It might help you two to spend some quality time with each other."

Rhea's jaw clenched. "I'm. Not. Staying. With. Him." Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "I won't."

Aidan's lips curled up over sharply pointed teeth. "What's your deal?" he turned to Rhea with his hands clenched into fists in his pockets. "You've been mad ever since we got off the plane."

She didn't look at him. "I would've been mad on the plane too, but someone knocked me out before we boarded." Her words were a slap in Aidan's face.

He threw his hands up. "You said you were afraid to fly!"

"Oh, so you were listening during our last conversation?" Her shoulders were stiff under her sweatshirt. "Seemed to me all you cared about was lying through your teeth in order to get me to come to this stupid school.

"Look, Rhea, it couldn't be helped!" Aidan hated the words even as he said them; he was taking the cowardly way out and she knew it.

She turned to face him for the first time since they'd gotten off the plane. "Did you laugh at me when I talked to you? When I told you all about my mother and talked about my paintings?! Did you chuckle inside when I told you I didn't have any friends? When I told you about how I got kicked out of school? When I started _crying_ because my mother was stabbed and my sisters taken away from!?"

Aidan's hands balled into fists at his side. "No, of course not! Why would you say something like that?"

"How much of that was _real_, Aidan?!" She stepped forward until they were eye-to-eye. She leaned upwards on her tiptoes to glare at him dead-on. "How much of that was you pretending to be my friend and how much was actually you? Or was it all just a stupid illusion?"

"Of course it was real!"

"Did you make sure Ben came for my mother? Did you call him up and let him track me down just so you could play the hero card and bring me to his god-awful place?" Angry tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. "Because if you did I swear to God –"

"NO! I DIDN'T DO ANY OF THAT! How can you _say_ something like that!? I didn't have any reason to lie to you! I still don't! I didn't even want you to _be_ my partner at first! I just wanted to be your friend!" He screamed into her face. "And if I really made sure Ben found your mother do you really think I would've let him take off with your sisters, too? His soul is a Kishin egg! I would've taken it if I could!"

"Bullshit!"

"You think I'm lying?"

"You're already so good at it!"

"I hated lying to you!" Aidan reached forward and shook her roughly by the shoulders. "Our first conversation, I almost told you right then who I was and what you were to me. I was ready to spill _the big secret_ and I didn't even know you!" His hands clenched around the fabric of her sweatshirt. "The only reason I didn't is because I knew you'd think I was crazy. I mean, come on! You barely believed it when the evidence was right in front of you! Do you honestly think you'd have believed me if I told you _over the phone_?"

She reached up and grabbed his wrists, trying to pry them off her shoulders. "Let go."

"Aidan." His father rested a hand on his shoulder. Behind him, Maka stood with her hands folded over her belly. Tension rested in the lines of her face.

"Not until you listen to me, dammit!" Aidan bared his teeth at her, shaking off his father's cautioning hand. "Here's the truth: I'm a human weapon. A scythe. I'm _your_ scythe. You wield me in the name of Lord Death and I keep you safe. You feed me Kishin eggs and I protect you from the evil forces who'd like to harm you, got it?"

Her eyes widened and her hands dropped from his wrists. "What?"

"This is what I was trying to tell you on the plane, dammit. You just didn't want to listen to me." His sharp teeth flashed angrily as he ground them together. "Well, you better start because we're together whether you like it or not. I am your weapon partner which means I'm always prepared to die for my meister."

Her mouth opened in a small O, but no sound was audible.

"Our soul wavelengths are compatible because we are alike. We're both broken," he said after a brief pause. Her face contorted, but Aidan plowed through her pain. "But that's good. It means we can help each other, okay?" He sighed and dropped his hands from her shoulders. "I lied to you. But only because I had to. And those phone conversations – all of it – that was real." He backed away and stood beside his father, slipping his hands into his pockets. "That was me. One-hundred percent. And Lord Death knows, I would have tried to save your mother. I did try to save your mother but I couldn't because I'm just a flawed weapon." He raised his gaze to hers. "And the only way I'm going to get better is with you."

Silence settled over the room as Aidan stepped back.

Aidan cleared his throat and looked down. "Now you know." He sighed. "I'm your friend first, Rheanna, then your weapon partner."

Her hands clasped together over her chest. Light tremors ran over her skin and small goose bumps sprouted on her bare legs. Guilt burned in Aidan's chest as he watched the emotional toll of his speech wreck the perfect calmness of her pretty face. She crumpled quickly, leaking a few crystal tears and sucking in two large breathes. But before anyone could console her, she wiped her eyes with a fist and clenched her fingers together to stop their shaking. She put herself back together in almost half the time it had taken her to fall apart – an old habit she'd picked up from years spent with an unemotional mother.

"She can stay with me."

The small voice at the back of the room belonged to a purple-haired meister with thin slender arms and a long black coat. Crona lowered his hand as everyone turned to look at him, and a pink blush spread over his cheeks.

"I-I've got plenty of room," Crona stuttered slightly, stepping forward to look at Rheanna. "Stein's old lab is proving to be way too much space for me."

"Yeah." A black fountain grew from his back, twisting and turning until Ragnarok's shape was complete. "It's a real dump," Ragnarok moaned, folding his arms over Crona's head.

Rheanna tilted her head to the side, staring past Aidan at the thin, spindly meister. "You're Crona, right?"

He nodded, jerking his purple head up and down in a quick motion. "Uh huh."

"I like your hair." The tears in Rheanna's froze as her eyes glazed with an expressionless kind of desire. Her fingers twitched beneath the long sleeves of the sweatshirt Aidan had bought her at the airport. "Do you mind if I painted it?"

Crona's blush deepened. "P-p-painted it?"

"On a canvas." Rhea folded her arms across her stomach. "I've got plenty in my suitcase . . ."

"Oh." Crona looked around, fiddling with his fingers and rolling his eyes. "Uh, yeah, sure."

Rhea cracked a small smile at him. "Cool."

"Why can't she stay with us?" Aidan folded his arms behind his head, glaring at his stubborn meister. "I think it would good for the two of us to bond, right?"

"She doesn't want to, Aidan." Maka rested her hand gently on her son's shoulder. "Give it a rest, sweetie."

"Mom!" Aidan shook off her grip.

"You can come and visit." Crona looked at a patch of skin above Aidan's eyebrow. "As long as Rhea's okay with it."

Aidan looked to his meister with both eyebrows raised. She met his glance somewhat unwillingly, flicking her icy gaze from side-to-side. "Ummmm . . ."

"I'll help you get settled in." Aidan reached down and lifted her two suitcases, staring at her covered wrists. "Then I'll stay out of your hair for a little while."

Their gazes connected solidly for what felt like the first time. "Oh. Uh . . . thanks."

"You two can tour the school whenever you'd like." A hint of a smile lingered around Lord Death's neutral frown. "There's no rush."

"Okay." Unease settled into the lines of Rhea's face as she and Crona turned towards the doors of the Death Room with Aidan a few steps behind.

_She knows what I'm going to ask her_. Aidan thought, watching her back stiffen and her shoulders quiver up and down. _Good. At least now I won't catch her by surprise, and now I'll finally be able to speak my mind. And she'll hear me._

_ Whether she wants to or not. _


	12. We Need to Talk About Rhea

New chapter! YAY! This one's a lot of backstory some internal conflict thrown in! So if you like that kind of stuff, good! The next two chapters will be feels/backstory heavy :) The "flaws" of Aidan/Rhea will finally be revealed and all that nosense. Sorry it took so long, but, hey, had to keep you interested ;) The action will pick up the chapter after the next (around the 14th chapter, if I'm thinking straight) cause Aidan and Rhea will begin training and they'll go through a school day at the DWMA (YAY! we get to see Renali/Junior again! I really like them!)

**OH AND PLEASE READ IMPORTANT**: Now that the manga is finished there are some pretty obvious differences, the first being the way the DWMA students defeated the Kishin (it probably won't come up, but if it does I'll explain the difference then), the second and third being that both Crona and the moon are not trapped in Black blood. So, yeah. Any questions just send me a PM and I'll explain how I think everything should have gone down. Kay, on with the story!

Hope you like it and please tell me what you think!

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We Need to Talk About Rhea

**MEISTER**

"Wow." Rhea stopped a few steps behind Crona, twisting the frayed edge of her skirt in her hands.

The house in front of her was covered in thick, stitches that crisscrossed the building in spindly, jagged lines. Arrows grew out of the ground and sprouted from the house's sides, lending freaky atmosphere to the already freaky house. Clouds hovered above the stitched, rectangular building; the final touches to the scary old building.

"This place is . . ." Rhea swallowed harshly, trailing off as Aidan stepped up beside her.

"Eerie, I know," he dropped her suitcases at his feet, stretching his arms high above his head. "Everyone thinks so."

"I don't." Crona tried on a half-smile, holding his arms out in welcome to the two DWMA students. "I like this place."

"It's cool," Rhea said after a moment, mirroring his small smile with one of her own.

"If by cool you mean creepy," Aidan muttered under his breath.

"Not creepy." Rhea shot Aidan a glare. "Interesting."

Aidan rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"You really think so?" Crona's navy eyes lit with pale blue light.

Rhea nodded, curling a lock of inky hair around her finger. "It's unique. I'd like to paint it." Her fingers twitched and the lock slipped from her thin fingers.

Crona's smile widened a fraction. "You sure do like to paint, huh?"

She nodded quickly and Crona's rigid posture eased. "I like to write," he said finally, linking his arms behind his back. "Poetry, mostly. It's pretty gruesome stuff, but I like it."

Rhea smiled.

"And I like to listen to music," Aidan grumbled. "Can we please move this conversation inside? It's kind of cold out here."

"Oh, right." Crona bent, folding Rhea's suitcases into his thin arms. He slid Rhea a side-long look before turning to the white-haired weapon with his arms locked around the thin leather bags. "Thanks for your help, Aidan, but I think I've got it from here."

Aidan's ruby eyes blinked wide in surprise. "What?"

"Rhea looks awfully tired." Crona rested his hand lightly on Rhea's thin shoulder. "I'm just going to make her some tea and let her go to bed. It'll be pretty boring. I'm sure you've got better things to do."

"Really?" Aidan swung his gaze towards his meister. "Tell him to let me in."

Rhea looked away, curling her hair around her finger again. She saw his gaze flick to her bandaged wrists and she turned away completely, shaking her head.

She knew he wanted to talk. But she had nothing to say that would ease his frustrated soul – she could see it now. A small, glittering red orb in the center of his chest.

He balled his hands into fists at his side and his small soul expanded with the force of his anger. "So that's it? We're just not going to talk." He scrubbed his hands through his white hair. "Man, nobody told me having a meister would be this frustrating."

"Sorry, Aidan." Rhea's voice was less than a whisper. "I'm going to hit the sack as soon as we get in."

"Whatever." Aidan turned away. "We _will_ talk, Rhea. You can't run from me forever."

"Easy, Aidan." Crona rested his hand gentle on the young weapon's shoulder. "Don't scare her, okay?"

"I'm sorry, I'm just –" His voice cut off sharply and he tipped a look at Rhea over his shoulder. "I'm new to this, okay? I'm not a good weapon; I've got a bit of a temper, in case you haven't noticed."

Rhea's arms were small pale slashes across her waist. "I have."

"But it's okay." A light grin curled Aidan's lips up. He bared his shark-teeth at Maka in an sharp smile. "'Cause you're not a very good meister. So we're even."

Rhea's mouth tipped downwards, but she wasn't offended. She watched Aidan storm out of the courtyard with anger traced on every line of his back. His white hair disappeared swiftly into the darkness, melting into the pale light cast by the grinning moon. The sound of his steps vanished soon after, their light clacking sounds untraceable after a few moments.

She closed her eyes, honing in on his soul – a broken reflection of her own – and stroked it softly, trying to ease his anger. She released it when she felt angry pressure pushing her away. She staggered back, bumping into Crona.

She tipped her head back, blinking slowly at the middle-aged meister. He lifted her suitcase above his head, stronger than his thin arms led Rhea to believe. "Come on," he said, nodding his head towards the doors. "I'll make some tea."

The inside was just as stitched as the outside. Arrows and huge zig-zag stitches were stabbed through almost every surface of the house's interior. Looking around, Rhea noticed a few touches that were distinctly feminine – remainders of the house's previous occupants – and a few things that belonged to the house's current owner.

"Is this yours?" Rhea asked, pointing to a small lavender plant by the dark window.

Crona nodded, pushing hair almost the same color as the plant out of his eyes. "Yeah. Lavender promotes relaxation."

Rhea thought of the small plant she'd left at home to die on her windowsill. "I know."

Crona set her suitcases down in the entryway, walking through the open interior of the first floor. "I have the perfect tea for you, then. Take a seat and I'll brew some."

Rhea sat down gingerly, folding her skirt beneath her bum. The wide, wheely chair creaked, rolling backwards as she sat down. She giggled and spun in the chair, laughing happily. Her black hair spun out in a wide shadowy arc around her head as she turned. The room flashed by her eyes as she spun, a wide open space of chairs, coffee tables and other living room furniture. A computer desk with a dead computer sat opposite the front doors and a small television sat propped against the wall beside it. Cabinets and countertops circled the room in a thick band, cluttered with old lab equipment and small potted plants.

She stopped when Crona came back in the room, holding her head between her hands with a light smile on her lips.

"Like the chairs?" Crona asked, handing her a steaming cup of tea. The pale purple mixture sloshed in the clear glass beaker Rhea held as she lifted it to her lips.

Rhea nodded, blowing gently over the steaming liquid.

Crona smiled. "They're a relic from the previous owner, Dr. Franken Stien." Crona's lips tipped up in a dazed smile. "Nice man. A little crazed, but definitely a good person. He and his wife, Marie, left me the place after they retired to Oceania a few years ago. Their son still comes and visits every so often, but he lives with them mostly."

"Thanks for taking me in," Rhea said after a minute, sipping her tea. "I really didn't want to stay with . . ." She trailed off, twisting her skirt in her free hand. "With, um, Aidan."

Crona's navy eyes held hers gently. "I noticed." He left it at that, leaving the conversation open to her.

She took another sip of tea, swallowing it quickly. It scalded her throat, but she pushed on, reaching for her voice before finally finding it.

"I just . . ." The words came slowly, then faster as Crona's calm demeanor squeezed the defensive answers out of her. "I couldn't stay with him without thinking of . . ." She swallowed thickly. "My mom and everything that happened, you know?"

Crona nodded, sipping his tea. "You're not ready to face what happened yet."

"No!" Rhea's hand cupped around the beaker began to shake. "I'm not! Not at all! I mean, yesterday I meet this boy I've been talking with over the phone – a boy who I didn't actually think was real – and then my mom is kidnapped and I'm almost killed! But the day before that, I was normal, you know? Well, a little troubled, I guess. But nonetheless, pretty average." Her hand rested on the grey sleeves of her sweatshirt. "I was fine. I was getting better. I was . . . recovering. Slowly, obviously, but . . ." She took two small breathes, sipping the air like she'd sipped her tea.

"Breathe." Crona rested his hand gently on her knee. All the nervousness she'd felt from him, all the anxiety and the tension, had vanished as soon as he'd stepped through his own threshold. And as he laid his hand on her knee, she felt some of her own panic vanishing, easing into that void it disappeared into whenever she cut. But this time was different, because there was no razor.

And she felt fine.

"Tell me, now. Slowly. What were you recovering from?" His navy eyes connected solidly with hers. In them, she saw the depth of his understanding, of his empathy, and his pain.

A flood of words poured from her, tinged with the heavy weight of her anxiety and the bitter pain she'd carried in her heart for as long as she could remember.

"I had a good home life, don't get me wrong. My step-dad, Ben, he was a nice guy until the end. Had a little bit of a temper when he was drunk, but fine for the most part. Then he and my mom, Jane . . . they started arguing. It wasn't awful; just normal, everyday arguing that morphed into terrible, loud fights. I tried to . . . tried to keep the twins from hearing it as much as possible, but they were just old enough to understand without _actually_ understanding, you know."

Crona nodded slowly. "I get it."

"And when they split, when Jane and I went one way and the twins and my dad went the other, I was actually happy for a little bit. I mean, I loved the twins, but I couldn't stand Ben. He just got so _mean_ towards the end. Talked to me over and over again about something my mother hadn't told him, something she'd lied to him about. I'm guessing now it was the fact that she could . . . she could . . . she could . . ." Her voice frayed into silence.

"The fact that she could transform into a weapon." Crona's voice filled in the blank and Rhea smiled gratefully.

"Yeah, exactly. He probably thought I knew. Of course, I didn't. I didn't even know I was a – what do you call it? Meister? – and that my sisters were . . . weapons, just like my mom. But anyway, we stayed in Maine and it was great for the first few months. Then I went to high school and it was just . . ." She looked down, folding her fingers together in her lap. "It was like somebody flipped a switch and said 'You're going to be super anxious and depressed about everything for. _No_. _Apparent_. _Reason_!'"

Crona's eyes were deep with empathy. "I can relate."

"Everything was hard. Everything was a struggle." She brushed her hair behind her ear angrily. "It was just . . . tough, you know? And everyone thought I was freak, everyone thought I was different. It was like they knew before I did. They knew what I really was, a, uh, _meister_, before I did. They knew I didn't belong with them long before I realized it." Her thin fingers twisted in and around each other, picking at the frayed edges of her skirt. "So I recoiled. I got angry. I got cold. I got distant. I don't even know half the stuff I did. My mom chucked me into therapy, we tried medication; I did _everything_ she wanted me to."

Rhea looked out the window at the leering yellow moon. "But none of it worked. I still felt odd. Like I didn't belong."

"Because you didn't." Crona placed both hands on her shoulders, squeezing gently. "You didn't belong out there, in that society." He waved out the window towards the imagined lights of the nearest city. "You belong here. In Death City. With your partner."

"Do I?" Rhea blinked up at Crona with frozen blue eyes. They melted slightly and two small tears fell on her cheeks. "I'm starting to think I don't belong anywhere."

"You belong here." Crona stood, taking her cold beaker in his hand. "I'm sure of it. It might take you some time to realize it, but, in time, you'll know it too."

He left her sitting alone in the stitched-up living room, listening to his words, but having a hard time believing them.

**WEAPON**

Across town, Aidan was storming away from his meister with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He'd felt Rhea try to touch his soul earlier, but he'd pushed her away with an angry grunt. He regretted it now as the string connecting them grew thinner and thinner the more blocks he covered.

"Is she afraid of me?" Aidan asked himself, kicking at a pebble beneath his foot. "Afraid of our connection?"

He spun in a half-circle, blinking up at the moon. It grinned high up in the sky, splashing faint yellow moonbeams down across the city.

"Or maybe she just doesn't know what to do?" Aidan continued to talk to himself, gliding through the empty streets, headed toward his parent's new apartment.

He stopped and tipped his head back, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "I can't blame her," he breathed. "Lord Death knows, what I'd do if I was in the same position."

_But you're not_, the devil on his shoulder whispered. _She's just being stubborn_. _You need to talk to her, teach her lesson, make her listen to you._

_Patience, Aidan. _The angel's voice was louder and more persuasive. _She'll listen to you. Just give her some time. Let her get her thoughts straight. _

_That's stupid. _The devil tried screaming at Aidan with a voice as annoying as a fly's high drone. _Be cool, Aidan. Hurry up and go to her. She can't ignore you when you're right in front of her._

Being cool_ is giving her time. _The angel won out, shooing the devil away with a harsh gesture. _She'll respect you more for that. _

Aidan sighed, hanging his head. His internal dialogue clicked off as he sat down, crossing his legs in the middle of the street. He had his devils and his angels, both of which had been passed down through his father's black blood. They weren't too bad and they didn't bother him much, but when they did he found it hard to believe anything they said. He didn't have the black blood, per say, he just felt the effects of it. It was a good thing, then, that'd he inherited the rigid discipline his father always had.

A car honked at him and Aidan jumped out of the way, landing across the street from where he'd started. He shook his head and straightened, turning around and smacking into the thick iron gate that haunted his memories.

MOONRISE CEMETERY. The words were blazoned on an iron plaque on the gate in thick black letters. The spindly black iron reached out for Aidan with thick, deadly claws, drawing him in to their ghostly depths.

"No," he breathed, but his legs had already closed half the distance between himself and the gate's entrance. "No, no, no! Not here."

But it was too late.

He was going to visit his sister.


	13. Cemetery of the Moonrise Kingdom

This chapter . . . it's pretty intense. I'm gonna be real. I almost started to cry writing it (but that's probably just cause I really like these characters/feel attached to them, but yeah . . .) It's pretty sad and it's another one of those confusing ones :) so it's starts off in Rhea's POV then shifts to both of their POV'S with a poem mixed in.

**CHAPTER KEY after WEAPON and MEISTER: **  
_Italics - Rhea's POV_  
Regular - Aidan's POV  
**Bold/Center - Crona's poem**

****Kay. Hope you like it! Sorry its so confusing but I'm playing with continuity (which is hard to do in writing, easier in movies and games and whatever) oh and PLEASE EXCUSE MY PATHETIC ATTEMPT AT POETRY seriously. I apologize. Anyway, on with the story!

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Cemetery of the Moonrise Kingdom

**MEISTER**

It took Rhea ten minutes to work up the courage to ask him. A new record for her.

He said yes, of course – he was flattered that she even asked – and they spent the rest of the evening working together in mutual silence.

Crona posed on a small dark stool, hunching his back over a long, blue notepad. A spindly grey pen rolled lightly between his long fingers as he scribbled furiously on the empty pad. His hair – pink in some light and purple in others – fell forward over his shoulder, swinging loosely as he wrote.

Rhea sat across from him, fitting a watercolor sketchpad across her knee. The rough paper felt good against her skin and the watercolor pencils on the desk beside her filled her eyes with light. She thought longingly of the easel she'd left at home – a gift for her twelfth birthday – and her melted blue eyes swirled like the Caribbean Sea.

"You won't need that many colors," Crona said, flipping his paper over and writing along the side of the page. "If you can't already tell, I'm kind of a dull person."

Rhea shook her head, picking the purple pencil up and holding it under her nose. She peeled the paper back with careful fingers, revealing the pencil's lavender-grey tip. "No." She sharpened the small tip, blowing softly on the end. The pencil shavings scattered across her paper, blown in small spirals by the wind of her breathe. "You're really not."

A delicate blush – pink, with a dash of red – spread across his cheeks and Rhea smiled.

The moon was high in the sky when they spoke again.

"Aren't you tired?" Crona didn't look over at her, flipping to a fresh page.

"No," Rhea said quietly, hunched over her sketchpad. The bags under her eyes spoke differently.

"Want to hear a poem?"

Rhea pushed up her sleeves, flipping her dark hair over her shoulder. "Sure."

"Really?"

"I said sure, Mr. Crona."

"Please, just Crona."

"Oh, okay."

"I'm just . . ." Crona fidgeted on his chair. "Most people don't like my poetry."

Rhea stopped coloring, sitting up with partially frozen blue eyes. "I'm not most people," she said simply.

Crona cracked a small smile.

**MEISTER and WEAPON**

_"Where should I start?"_

_ "People generally start at the beginning."_

_ "Oh, right."_

_ ". . . Well, go on, Crona. I like poetry."_

_ "Okay. Here goes."_

_ "What's it called?"_

_ "The title is _Moonrise Kingdom_."_

Aidan gingerly pushed the gate open, listening to the ominous creak with great trepidation. He stepped forward. Leaves crunched under his feet, snapping like old dried bones. The air was still in the graveyard, heavy with sadness.

**I live alone in a Moonrise Kingdom.**

The graves were small and delicate, befitting of the people buried beneath.

**I cannot feel the light of day.**

The path weaving through the gravestones was small, made for the light pitter-patter of children's feet; not for the mourners come to bury them.

**My friends stand above me, flush with sunbeams**

**But their hearts only come to me when they are in pain**

Aidan dragged his feet as he walked through the graveyard, taking small, slow steps weighed down with pain. It was a mistake to come here, he knew that now. But he'd been _thisclose_.

He had to see her.

**Leaving flowers at the entrance of my Moonrise Kingdom**

Her grave was at the back of the crowded cemetery. Beneath a great tall oak with wide, protruding roots.

**I have a castle in my Moonrise Kingdom**

They formed a small bench at the base, right next to her headstone.

**It's cold and empty, lonely and broken**

**But it's the only home I can ever have.**

Sometimes, when he was feeling bad, or when the sun was high in the sky, he'd come here and sit on that bench. Lately, he'd come with a book; she'd loved fairytales when she was alive. He'd worried a bit that someone would find him – someone from school or a teacher with pity in their eyes – but as the days without a meister wore on, he'd started to care less and less about the world around him.

**I live here because there is nowhere else**.

Being with Angelica was easy. She'd always loved him. He was her big brother after all. How could she not? But it was more than that. They'd shared a bond. Something he'd never felt before and hadn't since. Something that not even his meister would be able to replace.

**In this lonely, empty Moonrise Kingdom**.

He paused at the row in front of her grave, tapping his fingers against a small grey headstone one in front of hers. He read the name to distract himself, tracing the indented marble with his middle finger.

**I cannot sleep in my Moonrise Kingdom.**

Jacob Ford. Ox's little son. Poor kid, he'd had troubles from the start.

**But I can dream about the Day.**

Barely three months old and his life was extinguished. A small, flickering flame that had finally burnt out.

**About the friends and family I left behind.**

**About the laughter, the sunlight, the excitement.**

**That never fills my Moonrise Kingdom.**

Aidan left Jacob's grave and took three steps, planting his feet firmly in the soil beside his sister's grave. His body was tense and his ruby eyes were rigid, but in reality he was less determined than his body said.

He traced his eyes across the name carved into the grey stone. _Angelica Marie Evans_.

**Children sleep in their Moonrise Kingdoms**.

A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.

**Young ones, taken before their time.**

A beautiful girl who didn't deserve the shitty ending she got. The cold, hospital death she'd received out of mercy for a girl drowning in her own magnificent pain.

_Mercy_, Aidan thought, rubbing a rough hand through his hair. There was nothing merciful about it. She should have never had to suffer at all. There was no reason for her suffering. She'd never done anything wrong, she'd been a perfect little girl. A brilliant student and an even better meister.

She'd been the only meister Aidan had ever had before Rhea.

And she would still be the best in his mind.

**We are by ourselves, divided and separated.**

He sat gently in the grass in front of her grave, crossing his legs and resting his elbows on his knees.

**Lost in life and alone in death**.

Even the moon stopped smiling for a minute as Aidan reached out with a shaky hand.

**We are the children of the Moonrise Kingdom.**

He placed it gently on the grass where her head would be, stroking the short blades with thin, shaking fingers.

**We are the children of the Moonrise Kingdom.**

Aidan closed his eyes and the heavy air bent his head until his face was pressed into the ground near her long dead heart. If he listened closely, he could almost hear a faint beating – his own heartbeat reflected through the dirt to his ear. But wasn't it easier, wasn't it nicer to pretend. To pretend that it was her heartbeat he heard. To pretend that it was her harsh breathes he felt. To pretend that it was her crystal tears drawing solid lines down from the corners of his eyes.

**We are the children of the Moonrise Kingdom.**

"Hey, Angel." Aidan breathed, sitting up and wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his t-shirt. "Long time no see, huh?"

The wind whispered his name as it tore at his hair, singing through the oak tree's bare branches.

"I can't stay long." He stood, brushing grass off his jeans and the front of his jacket. "Mom's expecting me. You know how she is." He laughed hollowly.

"I just came to say that I found a meister." He slipped his hands into his pockets, kicking at a stray chunk of grass frayed up along the edge of her grave. "I think you'd like her. Her name's Rhea." He scrubbed a hand through his white hair. "She hates me. But I'll get through to her. I know it."

The silence that answered him spoke louder than any words.

These conversations were pointless; she couldn't hear him, couldn't talk back.

And yet . . . he couldn't stop. No matter how much pain he put himself through, he kept coming back for more.

It was the penance for his sins. The pain he must endure for killing his sister.

He would have done _anything_ to get her back.

Aidan sighed, reaching forward to tap the top of her tombstone. "Sleep well, Angel," he murmured, turning away. "I'll come back later, okay? With a book. And my meister. If she ever decides to speak to me again."

He walked away from her grave without a backwards glance, forcing himself forward with small, tripping steps. His red soul – red for pain, for fury, for agony – shrunk into a dry, shriveled husk in the middle of his chest.

He paused once, at the gateway. He took a fleeting looking back at his sister, sleeping peacefully beneath the oak's long branches. He felt no better then, than he had going in.

And the blood on his hands dried into a red crust that brushed away with the next breeze.

_"Wow." The pencil in Rhea's hand fell loosely from her fingers. "That was really pretty."_

_Crona blushed, folding the paper into his pocket. "Thanks, Rhea."_

_Dark hair swung forward in Rhea's face, shielding her melting blue eyes. "And sad."_

_Crona nodded, spinning in his stool. "It was inspired by a graveyard we have not far from here." His pink hair swung around his head as he spun, clasping his hands firmly around the stool's base. "It's called the Moonrise Cemetery. And it's where –"_

_"All the kids are buried." Rhea looked down and her hair spilled out across her fingers. "I gathered."_

_"Aidan's sister is buried there." Crona spoke quietly, unaware of the impact his words carried on his young charge._

_Rhea's couldn't draw in enough air to gasp._

_"Angelica." Crona's face softened with memory. "Sweet girl. Died in a motorcycle crash outside Death City; she and Aidan were coming back from their first mission together."_

_Rhea's fingers shook. Her wrists burned. Her lungs filled with air like molten lava._

_"Poor kid's never been the same." Crona ceased his spinning and stood. "He watched her die. In the hospital. That kind of thing changes a person, I'd imagine." His head tipped out the window, directed towards the moon – its pale lips were still turned down in an eerie frown. "It sure changed me."_

_He left the room without a word and the door swung closed behind him._

_Rhea shoulder's shook beneath the thin fabric of her sweatshirt._

_"Aidan," she breathed, looking towards the door. He hadn't told her. Why hadn't he –?_

_Oh._

_Because she hadn't told him._

_The watercolor pencils smudged across Rhea's hands in a wide dark arc painted blood red._

* * *

Oh and here's the full poem in case anybody wants to read it. I know its rather confusing cause I broke it up so much, so here you go. Sorry, I'm not the best with poetry, but I really thought it would fit here :)

_Moonrise Kingdom _  
I live alone in my Moonrise Kingdom.

I cannot feel the light of day.

My friends stand above me, flush with sunbeams.

But their hearts only come to me when they are in pain,

Leaving flowers at the entrance of my Moonrise Kingdom.

I have a castle in my Moonrise Kingdom.

It's cold and empty; lonely and broken.

But it's the only home I can ever have.

I live here because there is nowhere else.

In this lonely, empty Moonrise Kingdom.

I cannot sleep in my Moonrise Kingdom.

But I can dream about the Day.

About the friends and family I left behind,

About the laughter, the sunlight, the excitement,

That never fills my Moonrise Kingdom.

Children sleep in their Moonrise Kingdoms.

Young ones, taken before their time.

We are by ourselves, divided and separated.

Lost in life and alone in death.

We are the children of the Moonrise Kingdom.

We are the children of the Moonrise Kingdom.

We are the children of the Moonrise Kingdom.


	14. Sleepless Nights and Danger! Fight

Another chapter! Finally! Trust me, I know. School sucks. So yeah. Rhea's warming up to Aidan and now they're taking a tour of the school! Cool! Thanks for all of you who have stuck around to see this story through this far and for those of you that didn't and/or have forgotten about this, thanks anyway. I'm glad you liked it even a little bit. Hope you like it and tell me what you think!

**DISCLAIMER**: (yeah, I know. It's been a while): I don't own these characters. And the ones that are originally mine came from the Soul Eater world so they're not even mine at all. So yeah. Now you know.

PS: Like what I did with the title? Huh? Rhyming! It's incredible :)

* * *

Sleepless Nights and Danger! Fight

**MEISTER**

She didn't sleep a wink that night.

She kept the curtains drawn and the shades blocked. She even draped her jacket over a small blue alarm clock Crona had installed in the corner to block out its eerie blue light.

But Rhea's eyes would not close. They were frozen wide with the image of Aidan standing over his sister's grave. She didn't know. How could she have known? He didn't tell her. And still . . . her heart arched for the white-haired boy.

"God, I'm such an asshole." Rhea's fingers dipped beneath her sweatshirt sleeve, tracing the puffy ridges lying on the skin there. "I treated him like crap."

"Treated who like crap?" The door to her bedroom creaked open.

Rhea whirled, fisting her hands in her balled-up sheets. Aidan slouched into the opening, slipping his hands deep into his pockets. "Hey," he muttered, blinking bleary red eyes at her.

"Oh." She sat up straighter then relaxed, melting back into the mattress. "Hey."

"Dark in here." Aidan kicked the door shut behind himself, walking slowly over to her bed. "Are you . . . ?"

"Sleeping in my clothes? Yeah. I am." She rolled over, making room for him on the mattress.

He eyed her warily, perching on the far edge with the toes of his sneakers tapping against the cold tiled floor. "Doesn't look comfy."

She shook her head, fluffing her pillow and placing it beneath her bum and resting her back on the wall behind her. "It's not."

Aidan slid her a side-long look, clearing his throat awkwardly. "So. How you're feeling?"

Rhea bit her lip, playing with a loose thread in her skirt. "Alright." She pulled sharply on the string and it snapped, pulling a few more loose from the light fabric. "You?"

He shrugged.

Silence rolled between them, deepening the shadows of the small room.

"So, uh . . ." Aidan looked hesitantly around the small space, traced with arrows like the rest of the house. "Nice room."

Rhea rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. It's a glorified utility closet, Aidan. I'm not blind."

One side of his mouth curled up in a grin. "Hey, _I_ wasn't going to say anything."

"You were just waiting for the right opportunity."

His grin widened. "You'd have more room at my place." He leaned back, linking his arms behind his head. "The _new one_ hasn't been born yet so you'd have her room all to yourself."

Rhea's smile dropped sharply off her lips. "Oh." She looked away. "Your baby . . ."

"Sister, as far as I know." Aidan's smile faded too.

The words were on the tip of her tongue. The questions, the polite sympathy, and the sincere apologies. They tasted like dark chocolate; smooth and rich with just a touch of bitterness.

Her lips parted.

"Aidan?" Crona poked his head into the door. "Oh. Good morning, Rhea." He smiled warmly at her.

"Hey, Professor." Aidan nodded, stepping off the thin mattress. "What's up?"

Rhea frowned as the words slid back down her throat. She plucked violently at a few more threads from her skirt, demolishing the thin fabric.

"I'm off to school, Aidan." His words were directed at Aidan, but Rhea received the brunt of his stare. Crona frowned at Rhea, nodding his head in the young meister's direction. "And you two shouldn't be far behind. Big day ahead of you."

"Thanks, Professor." Aidan grinned, hooking his thumbs back toward Rhea. "I'll make sure she gets there on time."

"Good." Crona nodded, curling his thin fingers around the wooden door. "I left some breakfast on the table. In case you guys want any."

"Thanks." Aidan nodded.

"Rhea?"

Her head snapped sharply in the Professor's direction.

"Are you alright?" The pink-haired professor stepped further into the room, twisting his thin arms behind his back. "You look very pale."

"AND LOOK AT THOSE BAGS!" A thin black spray arched from Crona's back, melting into the solid form of a little man perched on top of the professor's head. "GEEZ, YOU DIDN'T SLEEP A WINK, DID YA?"

"What the hell?" Rhea locked her arms around her knees, backing against the wall. "What _is_ that?"

"HUH?" the little white-eyed demon rolled his x-shaped pupils over to Aidan. "SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHO I AM?"

"Rhea." Aidan spoke softly, sitting down gently on her mattress. "That's Crona's weapon partner, Ragnarok."

Rhea swallowed harshly, fidgeting under the little demon's stare. "Funny name."

The black demon's eyes widened. He pumped little gloved white fists at Rhea, baring long white teeth in her direction. "I'LL SHOW YOU A FUNNY NAME, YOU LITTLE PUNK!"

"Ragnarok, stop it." Crona reached up, poking and prodding at the demon's small face. "Leave her alone, she's Aidan's new meister."

"THAT LOW-LIFE FOUND A MEISTER!?" Ragnarok laughed, pointing to Aidan with a white finger. "HA! SHE MUST BE EVEN LOWER THAN YOU, HUH, AIDAN?"

Aidan's hands curled into fists. "Shut your mouth, Ragnarok."

"Why is he . . .?" Rhea pointed at Ragnarok, clearing her throat sharply. "Umm, why is Ragnarok on top of Crona? Did he come from _inside_ him?"

"WELL, WELL, WELL." Ragnarok rested his pointed black elbows on Crona's hair. "SHE'S SMARTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE BEAR."

"The _person_ who made Ragnarok Crona's partner, sort of, uh, melted him down."

"She replaced my blood with him." Crona lifted his arm and his sleeve fell below his wrist. Black veins threaded beneath the pale skin, pumping black blood through his veins. "Kind of creepy, isn't it?"

Rhea's eyes couldn't get any larger in her flushed face. "Who would do something like that?" she gasped, fisting her hands in her skirt.

"It's not important." Aidan stood, holding his hand out to her. "Come on. We've got to get going or we'll be late."

"But –" Rhea tried to look around Aidan, but he shifted, blocking her view of the little demon Ragnarok. "But, Aidan –! Aidan! Seriously!"

He reached down and laced his fingers around her wrist, pulling her up off the bed. His broad chest blocked her view of Crona as the professor retreated out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

"You've got a long day ahead of you." Aidan's fingers were warm on the inside of her wrist. "You can't afford to get freaked out this early."

"But I'm not freaked out! I think it's –" Aidan silenced her with a glare.

"Let's get some breakfast. Then we've got to go to school." He pulled her out of the dark room and into the lit living area of Crona's home.

His fingers slipped beneath the sleeve of her sweatshirt as he tugged her toward the kitchen.

He pretended not to notice the hard ridges along her skin.

And she pretended not to notice the warmth burning a fluttery path down to her stomach.

**WEAPON**

"This place is incredible!"

Rhea's eyes were freakishly wide, pale blue and partially melted. They swung around the empty courtyard, soaking in the tall gleaming spires, burning candles, and healthy dose of skull faces making up the building's architecture. She clasped her hands together, folding them over her mid-section.

"Just . . . wow." She spun in a tight circle. "I'd love to paint this."

"Not now." Aidan grinned, tugging her up the last of the stairs toward the doors. "We're on a bit of a tight schedule."

"You have _classes_ in here?" Her voice molded itself into a breathy gasp, full of wonder and awe.

He laughed. "Yeah. Where else would we have classes?"

She shook her head wildly as they entered the building. Her eyes flickered across the hall from one thing to another, soaking in as much as her eyes could hold. "I was just asking."

Aidan shook his head with a wry grin twisting his lips up. "You have so much to learn."

The halls were disastrous.

Everyone stared.

Everyone gawked.

Everyone whispered.

They couldn't help themselves. Aidan had been on his own for so long that seeing him with someone that wasn't Junior or Renali was just . . . _strange_.

"Is that his meister?"

"He actually got one! No way!"

"He probable paid her off."

"There's no way a girl that pretty would be _his_ meister."

"She's probably as crazy as he is."

"Or worse."

Their laughter wrung Aidan's nerves, stirring the boiling pot of anger within his chest. The only thing that kept him from lashing out at the gossiping students was the slight pressure of Rhea's hand in his. Warm and fragile, with hard twisted scars laced across the bottom of her palm. Her hand was his lifeline. She grounded him into the earth. Kept his head attached firmly to his shoulders.

A sour grin twisted his lips up as she tripped at his side, keeping their hands laced together. _How'd I survive as long as I did without a meister?_

He slid her a look when he thought she wasn't looking. Even the side of her face was beautiful. Dark hair and pale skin and big blue eyes. All the hard feelings that'd been brewing since last night dropped away. He _let_ them fall away, lowering himself onto the same awed platform she stood on. They stood together drinking in the sights and sounds of the DWMA with new, fresh eyes.

"Wow." She breathed, stretching forward to peer into a few half-empty classrooms. "This place is incredible."

Aidan stretched with her, unwilling to let go of her hand. "I'm glad you like it."

She flashed him a wary look. "What?"

Aidan shook his head, grinning solemnly. "What?"

"You're making a face."

"Am not!"

"Are too!" She stopped in front of him, peeling her hand away from his to cross her arms over her chest. She cocked her head to the side, peering sideways at him. "You look . . . scared."

Aidan opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, but his lips fell loosely over his pointed teeth. "I guess you're right." The words came out with a sigh as he ran his fingers through his spiky white hair. "I'm terrified you'll run away."

"Now why would I do that?" She looked genuinely confused.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed there are skulls everywhere." He took her by the shoulders and swung her around the room. She giggled, counting the number of cartoon skulls on her fingers.

"Okay, okay." He swung her again just to hear the unfamiliar sound of her giggle. "I'll give you that. There _are_ a lot of skulls."

"Secondly," he said once he'd released her. "You're in a strange new place with a bunch of strange new people befriending a strange new guy who can turn himself into a weapon." He shrugged. "That's enough to make anybody crazy."

She cocked her head on her neck and grinned at him, making her eyes unevenly wide. "I'm not crazy."

Aidan laughed and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. "Well, since you're clearly _not crazy_ . . ." He scratched harder at the back of his neck. "I dunno, I just kind of thought you hated my guts, remember?" He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. "'Cause I kinda sorta might have gotten your mom killed." He wanted to smack himself in the forehead. Did he _want_ to scare her away?

"Oh." She lowered her gaze, scuffing the ground beneath her feet. "Right."

Aidan's red eyes widened considerably. "Oh. Right?" He took a breath and ducked his head down to meet her gaze. "Is that all you have to say?"

"Umm." Rhea looked up and Aidan saw a faint blush tracing its way over her cheeks. "About that . . ." She blinked and looked away, but Aidan could see the blue in her eyes was almost completely melted. "I . . ."

"YO, AIDAN!" Junior came out of nowhere, hooking his arm around the weapon's neck. "We heard you got a –" His gaze landed on Rhea and his mouth spilled open, hanging somewhere around his knees. "Oh, wow." He said after a moment. "They weren't kidding."

"Ass!" Renali walked up behind her partner, smacking him on the back of the head. "Mind your manners." Her gaze drifted to Rhea and she too fell silent.

"Oh. Wow," she breathed, forcing her mouth closed.

Junior chuckled softly. Renali blushed, smacking Junior's arm. "Shut up, idiot!"

"That foul-mouthed thing over there is my partner, Renali." Junior extended the arm not around Aidan towards Rhea, smiling pleasantly. "And I'm Junior. Black Star Junior, if you want to be formal, but most everyone calls me Junior."

Rhea dropped her eyes, shyly taking his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise, gorgeous," Renali responded for Junior. She rolled her eyes towards Aidan with a sly grin. "Oops, sorry. Did I say that out loud?"

Rhea's blush deepened.

"Oi, Renali." Aidan shook himself out from under Junior's arm, standing behind Rhea with a protective hand hovering near her shoulder. "Don't scare her away, alright? It's her first day."

"Sorry, Aidan." Renali's grin widened. "Just testing her. She don't swing that way." She flashed Rhea a glittery wink. "But if you ever change your mind . . ."

"Umm . . . thanks." Rhea straightened, locking her arms behind her back. "It's nice to meet you, Renali."

The young meister grinned, rolling her eyes toward Aidan. "She made eye contact." She shrugged and the grin widened into an actual smile. "I'm impressed."

"Come on, Renali." Junior hooked his arm around his meister's shoulder. "Let's leave the new couple to themselves." Junior winked at his friend and the two swung into the Crescent Room Classroom, letting the door swing shut behind them.

"Idiots." Aidan rolled his eyes heavily. "The pair of them."

"They're nice." Rhea stared after them with a faint smile tracing across her lips.

"They're _outrageous_." Aidan laughed. "So." He clapped his hands together. "Grand tour or straight to class?"

Rhea quirked a dark brow. "Is that even a question?"

The two continued down the hall and Aidan began pointing out some of the major aspects of the building. The classrooms she'd need to know how to find, the massive gym, she'd practice in, the cafeteria she'd hopefully never have to eat in, the main courtyard, the extensive training rooms, etc.

"Want to practice?" he asked when they paused in the room above the training facility, watching pair after pair of meisters and weapons train against dummies. "We can talk to Angela if you want to." Aidan leaned against the wall opposite her, pointing to the command bench at the far end of the room. He watched her press her face to the glass, fogging it with her breath, blinking at the woman levitating behind the counter. "She's the head-witch in charge of the training grounds. I'm sure she could find space for us."

Rhea shook her head. "That's okay." She stepped back from the window shakily, locking her knees. "I don't want to make a fool of myself in front of all those people."

"What?" Aidan blinked in confusion. "Who said you'd make a fool of yourself?"

"I would." Rhea's shoulders were shaking beneath the thin fabric of her sweatshirt. "I just know it. I've never . . ." she swallowed harshly, sucking air in between her teeth. "I've never done this before. I could never . . . do this before."

"Hey." Aidan rested his hand gently on her shoulder. "You did do it before. At the hospital, remember. You were pretty good then."

Rhea didn't seem convinced. "And look, we're both new to this. You've never had a weapon, I've never had a meister. We'll learn together, okay?" Aidan's lip twitched around the half-truth.

Rhea's lifted her gaze to his, all frozen blue eyes with two melted streaks tracing away from them. "Really?"

Her eyes . . . they were _too big_. Too blue. Too luminous. They knew something. Something that set his teeth on edge and stirred the anger riling within him.

"Yeah." Aidan released her, stepping back from the something hidden in her eyes. No, no, no. He wasn't supposed to feel this angry, not with her. "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll be great at it."

She shook her head slowly, sucking her lower lip into between her teeth. She nibbled on it, drawing a single red bead against the pink skin. "No," she breathed and Aidan's guts twisted into hard knots. "That's not what I –"

Before she could say anything else, a loud alarm flashed, blaring above their heads. Aidan met Rhea's gaze sharply, blinking in shock before turning to peer out towards the training rooms.

Empty. They were all silent and still. The meisters and weapons that had occupied them a moment before were gone, vanished. Each individual compartment was devoid of life. Even the command bench in the far corner of the room was still. Angela was gone.

"This can't be good," Aidan scowled, stretching his arm out towards Rhea.

"It's really not." Someone growled behind them.

The pair turned as the internal lights flickered off, leaving the room draped in darkness. Before he knew it, Aidan was flying backwards with Rhea right behind him.

They flew through the glass windows of the room and soared into the open air separating them from the training room floor far below. Glass sparkled around them as the last remaining lights shut off and the whole school building fell into darkness.

The last thing Aidan saw was Rhea's face, pale and scared, a few feet above him. They flew together, separated by the hard falling air whipping past their bodies. He reached for her and she reached back, stretching her arm to connect their fingers.

Her mouth opened in a halfway scream and Aidan closed his eyes tightly as their hands connected.

And then it was over.


	15. Weapon and Meister, Together as One

Hey guys! Another chapter yay! A lot of you complained about the cliffhanger last chapter so I tried not to leave as huge of a cliffhanger, but . . . yeah! :) I do like cliffhangers. Hope you like this one too it's more fighting and that's not exactly my forte so just bear with me, okay? Umm, I think that's it. I'll update sooner, kay? Hopefully, anyway. Tell me what you think about this, it'll get fun after this

* * *

Weapon and Meister, Together as One

**MEISTER**

Aidan turned – morphed, changed, whatever the hell he did – into a scythe before she even asked. It seemed he knew exactly what she wanted even before _she_ did.

It was kind of infuriating.

And also kind of hot.

Rhea landed on her back, sliding backwards across the slick training room floor. Glass shredded her shirt and the skin of her legs as she slid, slamming Aidan into the ground to slow her slide. A harsh yelp left her mouth as the wall ran to meet her back, compressing her spine between the plaster and the wall of air she'd crashed through.

"UP!" Aidan's voice was a growled command, something that shook the shock from Rhea's bones and poured adrenaline into her veins.

She opened her eyes as the black shape lumbered towards her, wielding two blades that sparkled meanly in the darkness. Her feet found leverage on the wall and she pushed forward, knocking the shape's legs out from under him. She rolled to a stand as he crashed, landing heavily with his blades pressed down into the ground she'd recently occupied.

"Let's show him what we've got, Rhea." Aidan grinned within the blade's surface, rolling his great red eye up towards her.

"Do we have to?" Rhea propped his handle on the ground, using it to pull herself up.

The silver lid of Aidan's eye narrowed sharply over his dark pupil. "Is that even a question?"

"Yeah, okay." Rhea managed to prop herself up, swinging Aidan up into the crook of her arm. "_Fine_, we'll fight."

"Atta girl," Aidan grinned.

Cold and dark, the laughter of Rhea's opponent bubbled around the room, flashing across the blade and smacking Rhea in the chest. It weighed her down, like stones pressed against her ribcage.

"Think you can take me?" A rough voice rolled out from between his teeth, ricocheting off the broken tile of the gym floor.

"I know it." The words left, unbidden, from Rhea's mouth. Aidan's red eye rolled towards her as the laughter increased.

"You really think so?" Aidan's voice was only for her. It surrounded her in the near darkness, soothing the goose bumps rising across her skin.

She nodded, knotting her fingers around Aidan's handle.

"Let's go, then."

The darkness swathed the figure's shape in a black coat, insulating him against Rhea's prying eyes. No discernable features were apparent aside from the two blades, swinging between the person's hands. He shifted forward and Rhea reacted a second later, scanning the darkness to pick his moves out from the dim reflection from his swords.

Their swords clanged harshly, lighting the room with a few glowing sparks. They illuminated a harsh grin from Rhea's opponent, casting his face in an eerie shadow.

Rhea backed away, swinging Aidan up into the person's chest. He dodged, catching her blade against his and tossing it away. Rhea swung under, propping Aidan on her shoulder. She slid down, acting on instinct, and rammed Aidan's handle into the person's gut. He grunted but pushed down, shoving Rhea to the ground. Her head bounced against the gym floor and stars danced in her blackened vision.

"From the left!"

Rhea swung and blocked the next attack. She stepped forward with a punch, disengaging Aidan from her opponent's sword and taking a swing at his face. He ducked, but Aidan's blade scratched a shallow swath in the person's cheek, taking a dark hunk of skin and blood away. It landed with a squish on the gym floor, just a dark, shiny mass against the dim light. Rhea's hands loosened around Aidan as she stared at the dark patch, watching it leek fluid across the floor.

"Nicely done." The person was grinning, holding a hand to their bloodied cheek.

Rhea stepped back, blinking rapidly. She brought Aidan to her chest, holding him sideways under her ribcage. "Oh, God."

"Rhea?" Aidan flashed in the blade, watching the color leek from her cheeks.

"Squeamish?" The figure laughed. "That's not good, doll."

"Did I really do that?" Rhea had trouble focusing on anything but the dark mound of flesh by her foot. "Seriously?"

"Rhea, focus!" Aidan shouted as her opponent swung.

She ducked in time, crashing to the floor with Aidan still strapped beneath her ribcage. She rolled, avoiding the stomping feet of her opponent. Her opponent swung his blades down into the ground as she rolled, trying to pin her down, but she was too quick. She popped up into a crouch, swinging Aidan in a wide arc to cover her back as she ran towards the gym wall.

"What are you doing! Rhea!" Aidan screamed at her as she fled, stepping lightly across the hard floor. "Turn around! We have to fight!"

"No!" Rhea could barely breathe. "I need a minute."

"Rhea!" He swung his blade up of his own will, stretching it across Rhea's torso. She jerked to a halt, skidding her feet across the gym floor to avoid cutting herself on the shiny expanse of metal.

"What the hell, Aidan!?" Her breathe was long and deep, barely discernable from the darkness around her. She let go of his handle with one hand, tying it around her waist. Her fingers knotted into the fabric of her sweatshirt, digging pale rivets into the skin beneath her shirt.

The red eye on Aidan's handle was narrowed with anger. "She's right behind you!"

Rhea swung backwards and Aidan's blade connected with that of her opponents. The two clanged sharply, locking together with their combined force. Rhea turned, keeping Aidan high above her head and tangled with her opponent's blade.

"You want to keep going?" she gritted her teeth, blowing dark hair out of her eyes. "_Fine_."

"That's more like it." Aidan grinned.

They swung together, knocking blade against blade. Rhea turned, digging her elbow into the meaty flesh above the man's ribcage. He backed away with a sharp grunt, higher than his gravelly undertone. Rhea pulled back, squinting in the darkness at the shape before her.

"On your right!"

She caught her opponent's blade, bringing it down with a harsh swing from Aidan. It hit the floor hard, bringing Rhea's opponent down with it. She stomped her foot down hard, squishing something meaty beneath her heel. The opponent cried out, bucking upwards with his shoulder beneath Rhea's bum.

She fell backwards, nearly slicing herself open on her own blade. She rolled at the last minute, resting on her forearms as Aidan wriggled beneath her, still in weapon form. She managed to grab his handle and force him between her opponent and her own body, pushing him back with the sheer strength of her momentum.

"Is that all you've got, doll!" Her opponent said harshly. Flecks of spit and blood spattered across Rhea's face as he spoke. "It's gonna take more than that to kill me!"

"Aidan!" Rhea coughed, turning her head to the side as his handle slid down across the skin of her throat. Her opponent's blade pressed his handle down, nicking the skin of her throat, drawing blood. "UH! Aidan!"

"Push it, Rhea!" Aidan gritted his teeth within the blade's surface. "Push him off!"

"I can't."

"You can, idiot!"

"No, I –"

"DO IT, RHEA!"

Rhea yelped forcing her elbows to lock. She pushed up with all her strength, finally managing to knock the brute off her. He rolled to the side and she sat up quickly, gasping sharply. Air was such a lovely thing, Rhea thought, blinking the dark spots out of her eyes. Really though, oxygen didn't get the appreciation it deserved.

She slid her opponent a sidelong glance. He was coughing too, flipping shiny hair over his shoulder. Wait – what? Shiny hair . . . a brilliant blonde, it caught the shadowy light sending it sliding towards Rhea before a dark cap was dragged over it, shielding its light.

"What the hell?" Rhea rolled away, sucking air back into her lungs. "Aidan, I think that's –"

"Don't get distracted, Rhea!"

Rhea turned too late. Her opponent nailed her in the shoulder, curving the flat part of her blades around Rhea's shoulders. Rhea yelped as her opponent pulled back with all her force, dragging Rhea back behind her body. Twin pricks of pain erupted in her shoulders as the blade's sharp points dug in before releasing her across the training room. She flew across the floor, landing against the wall with her back already arched.

She fell, pinned between the wall and her opponent. She lay there, curled like a dead bug in a corner. Her head rested in a pile of broken plaster and dust with Aidan's blade digging into her side.

"Really, doll." the harsh voice of her opponent bent over her, grinning with malice. "You need to pay more attention."

Hot tears dripped from Rhea's eyes as she lifted her aching head, resting it on the wall behind her. She swung her legs in front of her, using her skirt to shift her legs easily across the slick floor. With a harsh growl, Rhea kicked her opponent in the gut, balling her hands into fists at her sides.

"I'M!" Kick. "NOT!" Kick. "VERY!" Kick. "GOOD!" Kick. "AT!" Kick. "THIS!"

With one last kick, she dislodged her opponent from above her, reaching back and grabbing Aidan's handle. She swung him like a baseball bat, arching him way over her shoulder and brining him down with a harsh crunch into her opponent's side. She coughed as Rhea flipped the blade around, using the sharp end to tear down her defense without ever actually touching his skin.

"That's an understatement," the figure grunted, propping herself onto one knee.

Blood dripped from Rhea's shoulders, dripping down her hands and onto the handle of Aidan's scythe blade. The liquid, hot and fluid, slid between Rhea's fingers and into the cracks of her bitten nails. She ignored the hot rush of the blood across her hands, aiming Aidan's blade between at the crook of her opponent's shoulder.

"Just stop." Rhea's voice was firmer than her resolve. "Okay? Stop and I won't . . . hurt you."

"Like you could." The voice was grinning, shifting like she made to stand.

"I COULD!" Rhea brought the blade down, resting it gently against the pile of muscle and skin of her opponent's shoulder. "Just . . . don't make me."

"You're a meister." The figure got both feet beneath her, standing a good several inches above the top of Rhea's head. She had to shift onto her tiptoes to keep Aidan resting against her shoulder. "You'll have to kill eventually."

"Rhea." Aidan rolled his red eye towards her. "Protect yourself."

"I'm not going to kill you." Rhea stepped back, resting the point of Aidan's blade against her opponent's chest. "Okay." Her voice hiccupped with a sob. "I don't know you, and-and, umm, I'm a vegetarian, okay? So, uh, unless you really want to kill me, I'm not going to kill you."

"You fought your father." The harshness in her opponent's voice dropped away with each syllable, sliding easily off her tongue.

"God, can you just –!" Rhea took a deep breathe. "I'm not going to fight you." She stepped back as the lights snapped on. "Renali."

The blonde meister rolled a grin up towards Rhea, tilting her head at an odd angle. The dark cap she'd been wearing, fell off her head, revealing the brilliant locks hidden beneath it. The twin blades in her hands flashed darkly, connected by a thin black chain Rhea hadn't noticed before.

"What gave me away?" A blue streak of hair tilted forwards, slipping across her upturned lips.

"Reanli, what the hell!" Aidan flashed, poking his chest out of the blade's surface. He extended his arms, folding them so they rested on the flat surface of his blade. His lips puckered in an angry frown. "You were trying to kill us!"

"Relax, Aidan." Renali grinned as Junior flashed inside the twin scythe blades, flashing his friend a wide grin. "It was just a training exercise."

Renali tipped her head up towards the glass room they'd exited. The crowd of meisters that had previously occupied the training room floor stood up there, grinning like idiots. Aidan saw all his teachers – Crona, Black Star, Ox, Angela, Kim – as well as his dad and Lord Death, watching them. Soul's eyes glowed with pride, bright red in the sudden light. Maka stood beside him, rubbing her bulging tummy with a delighted grin curling across her lips. A couple of Aidan's classmates were up there too, with expressions ranging from disgusted to slightly impressed.

Blue Star clung to his father's pant leg, taking care not to lean on the wall of broken glass. He waved at Aidan and Rhea with glee in his round eyes. "HEY, GUYS!"

"What?" Rhea stepped back, fisting her hands around Aidan's handle. She lowered her confused gaze back towards Renali. "I mean . . . no, wait what?"

"We had to test you." Junior flashed out of weapon form, kneeling beside his meister with an arm around her shoulders. He touched Renali's torn cheek, blowing air out through his teeth. "Nice hit, Rhea. Especially for someone with no practice."

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE!" Rhea cried, flipping Aidan upside down and nudging Renali across the floor with his long handle. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU!?"

"Calm down, Rhea." Aidan grinned within the blade as all the chatter echoing down from the glass room ceased. "It was just a test."

"Oh, don't tell me to calm down, Aidan Evans." Rhea swung her weapon up, inches from her face. She narrowed her eyes at the face grinning within the blade. "YOU KNEW! Didn't you?"

His eyes were laughing, but his lips remained firmly neutral as he held up his arms, leaving the lower half of his body still in weapon form. "I swear, I didn't."

"Hmphh!" Rhea threw Aidan down with a sharp huff, balling her hands into fists. She turned sharply and stalked out of the training room, muttering curses beneath her breathe.

"Wait, Rhea!" Aidan flashed out of weapon form, already striding towards her. "Wait! We have to get you to the Dispensary!"

"I can't do this!" Rhea cried as she left the training room, her voice fading into the distance. "Really, Aidan! If people are going to jump me on MY FIRST DAY who knows what they'll do every other day!"

"Come on, Rhea." The training room doors swung shut, muffling Aidan's reply. "You're bleeding in three places . . ."

"Was that good enough for you, sir?" Renali stood, giving Lord Death a sharp salute. "Did she pass your test?"

"She did," Lord Death nodded, turning to the friends he'd gathered around him. "Now we can train her."


End file.
